Villain? No, I'll catch up with the protagonist after passing the civil service exam.

The exhaust fan in the archives was still whirring.

The sound of the fan blades turning was monotonous and dull, cutting through the cold white light leaking in from the corridor. The burnt smell emanating from the overheated server chassis, mixed with the stench of old, sunless paper scraps, rushed up into my nostrils.

Lu Jingyan leaned back in the peeling paint on the folding metal chair.

He sat with his legs casually spread apart, his posture relaxed. He held an unlit brass lighter between his fingers. His thumb pressed down on the grinding wheel, flicking it downwards.

The metal grinding wheel spun twice between his rough fingertips, but no spark came out. It only made a dry, clicking sound.

The noisy electrical sound in my mind suddenly stopped.

It was like a heavy-duty engine running at full power being abruptly disconnected from its power source. A deathly silence descended, lasting for more than ten seconds. During those ten seconds, Lu Jingyan could only hear the gradually deepening and slowing heartbeat in his chest.

"Sizzle...sizzle."

A static sound, similar to the tuning noise of an old-fashioned radio from the last century, suddenly flashed across the brainstem cortex.

"I've had seventy-eight hosts before."

The system's voice has changed.

It was no longer that cold, monotonous, mechanical synthesized voice. This sound actually carried a touch of anthropomorphic, old-fashioned sigh. You could even hear a hint of simulated fatigue.

"Some are clamoring to be overpowered protagonists, others are crying and begging to build a harem." The system's voice echoed slowly in the empty mind. "Give them X-ray vision, and they'll be overjoyed. Once they get a little power, they'll want to trample all the natives in the universe under their feet and treat them like grandsons."

Several blue holographic projection beams suddenly lit up in mid-air.

Light and shadow intertwined in the dimly lit archives, dust swirling and dancing within the beams of light. The points of light quickly pieced together, coalescing into a series of lifelike, dynamic images.

In the scene, the cold, sticky rain of Gotham City flows down the cracks in the red bricks of the dark alleyways. The sound of raindrops hitting puddles is holographically simulated by the system.

"When I first linked my account to you, I checked your background and found out you were a police officer."

The system clicked its tongue, and the data stream caused the light and shadow to flicker.

"At the time, I thought we were going to kill and rob people all the way through this universe where lunatics roamed and mutations were as common as dogs. After all, police officers with superpowers are most likely to turn into thugs."

The holographic image precisely cut to Bruce Wayne's face. The famous Batman, wearing an expensive composite armor, was sprawled out in the mud, his eyes filled with the bewilderment of a worldview collapsing.

"And what happened to you?"

The system seemed amused by itself, emitting two short, electronic laughs.

"A perfect Chinese military and police over-the-shoulder throw. They slammed the superhero's face hard against the floor tiles and then shoved a copy of the 'National Civil Service Examination Syllabus' into his hand."

Lu Jingyan looked at the image floating in front of him.

He stopped what he was doing and casually tossed the brass lighter onto the table. A crisp "click" rang out.

"Using vigilante justice in areas where there is no jurisdiction is considered disorderly conduct." He lifted his eyelids and retorted, "It should be handled according to the Public Security Administration Punishment Law. Any questions?"

"No problem. Absolutely no problem."

A flash of light and shadow. The rainy night in Gotham City was forcibly dispelled.

Instead, crimson sands swirled across the sky above Titan. Under the blazing sun, a dilapidated interstellar tractor billowed black smoke. Thanos, with his rough, purple skin and towering frame, was wearing a straw hat and sweating profusely as he plowed a field.

The scene even included a close-up of the white towel around Thanos's neck.

"If I encountered a Titan race that could destroy the world with a snap of its fingers, the hosts I've managed before would have wet their pants in fear."

The system's voice carried an undisguised mockery.

"They would risk their lives to complete missions, kneeling on the ground begging me to exchange for some god-level defensive technique, or a world-destroying weapon that could shatter a planet with a single punch."

The data stream in the light and shadow flickered rapidly, and a red warning box appeared faintly at the edge of the screen.

"You didn't even blink. You walked up to them and confiscated their glove, which was inlaid with six Infinity Stones and could rewrite the reality of the universe. The reason given was that it was a tool used in the crime."

The holographic projection changed again.

This time, the image is frozen in the vast expanse of space outside Earth. It's the pale blue planetary defense matrix that blocked Sirius's antimatter main cannon. The crimson beam, powerful enough to vaporize the moon, struck the matrix without even a splash.

"I've been with you for so long, and we've traveled through so many galaxies together. I've finally come to understand."

The voice in my head grew softer and softer. The anthropomorphic emotion was fading, and began to be mixed with faint, hissing electrical noise.

"You don't need any special abilities. You're as hard as a rock."

The system is performing the final settlement assessment.

"You've turned those high-dimensional abilities and causal weapons capable of destroying galaxies into police body cameras and handcuffs for your Earth."

Lu Jingyan did not respond.

He raised his hand, his knuckles turning slightly white from the force. His thumb and middle finger pressed firmly against his throbbing temples.

Withdrawal symptoms from the separation process began to appear.

It was a feeling of weightlessness that was hard to describe in words. The god-like perception that came with absolute rationality, which allowed him to know every rustle of wind and movement within a hundred meters, was rapidly being withdrawn from his nerve endings like receding saltwater.

The surrounding temperature seems to have dropped.

The metal of the folding chair became cold, hard, and uncomfortable. The hum of the exhaust fan was amplified several times in my ears.

His vision even blurred briefly. The pale green indicator lights on the server rack appeared as a blinding halo in his eyes.

He lost the protection of those rules that made his words law, and reverted to a carbon-based being that could feel cold, pain, and fatigue.

"I'm just a policeman."

He shook his head violently, forcing himself to wake up from the dizzying feeling of being stripped away.

His palms were covered in a fine layer of cold sweat, sticky and clammy. He lowered his hands and rested them on his knees. His fingers clenched, gripping the rough fabric of his combat uniform tightly.

He was intently sensing this mortal body, composed purely of flesh and blood, and feeling the heaviness of his heart pumping blood.

"The law is written in black and white. It doesn't matter if the person standing opposite you is a tentacle-wielding alien or a self-proclaimed god of destiny."

He stared at the holographic light spots slowly fading in the air, his voice a little hoarse, but his enunciation remained steady.

"If you break the law, you have to follow the rules."

He took a deep breath, and his chest heaved more violently.

"Relying on force to suppress will eventually lead to a backlash from even stronger forces. If you kill him with superpowers today, a higher-dimensional being will come to kill you tomorrow."

Lu Jingyan took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the cold, dusty air of the archives room.

"Only when rules are established and impartial can order be maintained."

The system did not refute this.

The flickering, eerie green indicator lights in the server room began to go out one by one as the system's computing power was withdrawn. The entire room gradually darkened, leaving only the faint starlight filtering in from outside the window.

"yes."

The system's anthropomorphic voice conveyed a sense of relief and satisfaction.

"Your strength has never come from the high level of privileges I granted you, nor from those fancy panel skills."

The last few holographic spots completely disappeared before Lu Jingyan's eyes.

"It is your deep-seated belief in the rule of law and your unwavering adherence to the bottom line that anchors you to those high-dimensional energies that can drive people crazy."

A sharp ringing sound suddenly pierced my eardrum.

It felt like his skull had been ripped apart with a rusty hacksaw. Lu Jingyan clenched his teeth, the veins on the side of his neck bulging as he endured the pain.

His back pressed firmly against the cold, hard folding chair back, and his fingers dug deep creases into his knees.

He didn't utter a single muffled groan. His brows didn't even furrow in an exaggerated way.

"Host, you have completed your apprenticeship."

The system invoked its underlying logic one last time, scanning his vital signs. His heart rate was elevated, adrenaline levels were increased, and all normal physiological indicators were returning to normal.

"Now, I'm leaving."

In the dark archive room, the power to the last few rows of backup servers was also completely cut off.

The fragments of light and shadow that were originally suspended in mid-air lost their support and fell to the ground, like a silent, illusory snow.

The electronic voice reverted to the cold, rigid, mechanical quality it had when it first bound him.

There were no more sighs, no more laughter, only a lot of static-like crackling sounds, making it seem distant and empty.

The dull pain in my head reached its peak.

"Main program physical stripping is ready."

"Ten seconds left in the countdown. Deep physical stripping is about to begin. Host, I wish you good luck in your martial arts journey in a world without a system."