The Omega Pretending to Be an Alpha Was Accidentally Marked by His Boss - Chapter 6

The B1 floor was relatively much quieter. When Qiu Nan stepped out of the elevator, he instinctively slowed his breathing.

In the spacious monitoring area across from the Director’s office, several massive screens displayed the detained monsters. Some were pacing around their cells in a state of high anxiety, while others lay completely motionless, slumped into bizarre shapes.

Chen Minhan, the agent responsible for monitoring the captive entities, shot Qiu Nan a knowing smirk and made a dramatic, throat-slitting gesture with his hand.

Refusing to back down, Qiu Nan returned an identical gesture, though his heart instantly skipped a beat.

Could it be that Detective Chen, with his front-row seat to the top floor, has caught some insider gossip along the lines of “Captain Qiu is utterly doomed”?

His conscience heavy with anxiety, the apprehensive Captain marched toward the innermost office. He knocked on the door with a degree of politeness he had never managed before in his entire life. Upon receiving permission, he pushed the door open and stepped inside, his expression completely serious.

“Director, Chief Lan!” Qiu Nan cast a fleeting glance over the two men before focusing his entire attention on the massive suburban blueprint of Nandong City spread across the desk. “Has the monster been located?”

Lan Mingliang looked at Xie Yunnian, then back at Qiu Nan.

Seeing that the Director had no immediate intention of answering, he took the initiative to speak. “Squad Three has been deployed to give chase. Your Squad Four is on standby!”

Qiu Nan’s temper flared instantly, completely forgetting his initial desire to keep his distance from Xie Yunnian. “The apprehension was Squad Four’s mission! Why on earth was it handed over to Squad Three?”

It would be one thing if both squads were executing a joint deployment, but what kind of logic dictated sidelining the primary team entirely?

More importantly, it meant that Wu Jiada had gotten the upper hand again. Dammit!

“Weren’t you supposedly hospitalized?” Having harbored a stomach full of suppressed frustration himself, Lan Mingliang’s response carried a distinctly cynical bite. On one hand, he had to remain mindful of the Director’s unpredictable attitude toward Captain Qiu; on the other, he was trying desperately to keep himself from internal hemorrhaging.

“Well, I’ve already discharged myself!” Qiu Nan argued, completely unyielding.

Besides, the actual culprit behind the whole mess is sitting right next to you as your esteemed Director!

Driven by a fiercely competitive “refusal to lose” mentality, Qiu Nan shrugged off every ounce of psychological pressure and confronted Xie Yunnian directly. “Director, we are fully capable of capturing it ourselves. Squad Four understands the specifics of ND-420 better than anyone!”

“Let me tell you something, Captain Qiu. Aren’t you being a bit ungrateful here?” Lan Mingliang’s eyes widened in frustration. “Didn’t we explicitly grant you leave? What are you trying to prove by barging in here to show off?”

Qiu Nan shot him a look, his lips twitching, but he forced himself not to start a shouting match.

Old Lan had a fiery temper, and Qiu Nan wasn’t exactly known for patience either. It was completely routine for the two of them to lock horns over operational matters, though Qiu Nan still maintained a healthy amount of respect for him when they weren’t actively bickering.

“Director, you tell him!” Qiu Nan slammed both hands flat against the desk, leaning forward to stare intently at the Bureau’s chief executive. His eyes didn’t waver for a fraction of a second as he awaited a response. From Xie Yunnian’s vantage point, the open collar of Qiu Nan’s uniform perfectly revealed the sharp, deep hollow right above his collarbone.

Xie Yunnian crossed his hands over his knee, shifting into a more relaxed posture.

As his calm, commanding gaze swept over Qiu Nan, a sudden wave of goosebumps broke out across the Captain’s back. Under that intensely authoritative look, Qiu Nan’s mind involuntarily drifted back to certain highly non-work-related memories. He slowly lifted his hands off the desk, tucking them neatly against his sides, suddenly standing as perfectly behaved as a primary school student.

He kept repeating Mi Zhu’s words like a mantra in his head:

The number of young Omegas and Betas throwing themselves at him back there probably ranges from eight hundred to a thousand. To a wealthy young master like that, a mere permanent mark amounts to absolutely nothing at all!

Right, right, right. That’s exactly it!

Xie Yunnian finally spoke, his voice carrying that characteristic quality of “I am speaking very calmly, but I am still terrifying.”

“It is entirely possible, Captain Qiu, that Squad Four does not understand the specifics of ND-420 quite as well as you believe.”

Qiu Nan blanked.

Lan Mingliang was similarly caught off guard.

The corners of Xie Yunnian’s mouth turned upward slightly. “That is precisely why I summoned you here.”

He reached into a drawer and retrieved several sheets of paper still crisp with the scent of fresh printer toner, laying them out across the desk one by one in front of his two subordinates.

Qiu Nan looked down. Stamped on the pages was a photograph of ND-420, accompanied by technical details printed in glaring red ink.

The red, bolded header indicated a “Profile Update and Correction.”

Xie Yunnian lightly tapped a slender index finger against the document. “ND-420’s official classification has actually been updated to NB-420. Its full combat potential had never been triggered previously, which led to an incorrect evaluation by your teams. Furthermore, the escape of the second entity, ND-421, was directly induced by its psychological influence.”

Qiu Nan looked at Lan Mingliang, and Lan Mingliang looked at Qiu Nan, both of them staring in absolute disbelief.

• N: Nandong Sector.

• B: B-Rank Entity.

• 420: The 420th monster to be placed on the sector’s wanted register since records began.

Beautiful!

A straightforward, mundane D-rank deployment had instantly escalated into a full-scale B-rank threat. How could a single deployment of Squad Four have possibly sufficed under the initial parameters?

A sudden surge of vindication washed over Qiu Nan, and he instantly squared his shoulders.

He threw a thoroughly smug, triumphant glance toward Lan Mingliang. See that? The mission failure wasn’t our fault at all! The evaluation files provided by the Research Division were flawed! And your tactical deployment as the Head of Field Operations Department was completely off the mark, too!

Lan Mingliang’s face turned slightly green, completely at a loss for words.

He couldn’t fathom what the Director was playing at. He had spent the better part of the morning cooped up in this office with the man, reviewing data up and down, yet Xie Yunnian hadn’t uttered a single word to him regarding the entity’s reclassification! The Director had deliberately waited until the primary agent arrived just to pull out the files and use them to slap him across the face!

Seeing Qiu Nan’s metaphorical tail practically wagging in the air, Xie Yunnian subtly pursed his lips to suppress a smile.

“Captain Qiu, I am giving you exactly thirty minutes to review the profile.” He leaned back comfortably into his executive chair, looking at the young man with an easy expression. “I shall be waiting to see your performance.”

Qiu Nan blinked.

See my performance?

Did that mean exactly what he thought it meant?

He truly hadn’t expected this high-and-mighty Director to be such an incredibly reasonable and understanding boss!