On how PhDs become human evil

This happened when Bai Jie was still in Longmen.

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August 15th, sunny with high visibility.

That day, as soon as Bai Jie arrived at the Lungmen Guard Bureau, he overheard several colleagues talking.

"Hey guys, what are you chatting about? Count me in!" Bai Jie shouted, slapping a staff member on the shoulder as he approached from behind.

"Waaaaaah, a ghost!"

The man jumped up instantly, as if Bai Jie standing behind him was some kind of ferocious demon. He only breathed a sigh of relief after turning around and seeing Bai Jie's face.

"What? It's Old Bai! Don't scare me, okay?"

"Who knew you'd react like this? What were you talking about? Tell me about it."

After taking a sip of water to calm down, the man—let's call him G—said, "Old Bai, do you know what day it is today?"

"The fifteenth of August, what's wrong?"

What day is the 15th of August?

Bai Jie was taken aback by his question.

Is August 15th a special day?

(When it comes to special days, birthdays are probably the first thing that comes to mind, but it seems like no one in the Guard Bureau has a birthday today. Chen and Swire are both born in July, and Hoshiguma is born in January, so none of them fit the bill.)

(If it's not a birthday, then a holiday? Wait... a holiday?)

With an uncertain tone, Bai Jie looked at G and asked, "Is today the Ghost Festival?"

“Yeah! It’s the Ghost Festival. And what comes to mind when you think of the Ghost Festival? Ghosts, right?” G looked terrified. “Today I want to ask Boss Chen if I can leave work early, preferably before four o’clock. I’m afraid I’ll encounter ghosts if I’m late.”

Seeing his colleague's cowardly appearance, Bai Jie rolled his eyes at him: "I'm telling you, ghosts and phantoms are just figments of our imagination, okay? Stop fooling yourselves. Instead of getting scared here, you should hurry up and finish today's business. If Chen sees us chatting here, he'll start yelling at us again."

After Bai Jie said that, the members of the Guard Bureau, who had been gathered in twos and threes, returned to their positions. Clearly, in everyone's mind, Chen Sir was more terrifying than the ghost.

(Bringing Chen out of the way worked, but did they forget that Chen is off today? Did they even forget the schedule?)

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At four o'clock in the afternoon, Bai Jie finished his workday and returned to the apartment where he and Chen lived together.

Strictly speaking, the apartment actually belonged to Bai Jie. Before he came to work for the Lungmen Guard Bureau, he was the secretary of Wei Yanwu, the leader of Lungmen. Because of the major breakthrough in the diplomacy with Victoria, which gave Lungmen an absolute advantage in the confrontation between the two, Wei Yanwu, who was in a great mood, gave Bai Jie an apartment.

However, shortly after acquiring the apartment, Bai Jie voluntarily requested to work at the Lungmen Guard Bureau. After working there for six months, Chen semi-forced Bai Jie to hand over the keys to his apartment and openly moved in.

This was actually considered trespassing, but Bai Jie didn't complain. After all, he was secretly delighted that the person he secretly loved was willing to live under the same roof as him.

Carrying vegetables he bought from the market, Bai Jie was about to walk through the living room to the kitchen when he saw Chen sitting on the sofa watching TV in the living room. Incidentally, the TV was showing a horror movie.

Seeing Bai Jie return, Chen frowned: "Why are you here so early today? Isn't the Guard Bureau supposed to close at 6 p.m.? It's only 4:30 now."

"Ah, about this..." Bai Jie scratched his head and said helplessly, "Today is the Ghost Festival, and 4 pm is the so-called time of encountering demons. Everyone thinks that if they leave work at 6 pm, they might encounter ghosts on the road, so they all came to me and asked me to leave work early."

In the Guard Bureau, everyone generally follows the orders of Chen, Swire, and Hoshiguma, including the working hours from 6 am to 6 pm, the layout order, etc., which are all set by Chen and the others. However, there are always times when these three are not around, and at that time Bai Jie will become the acting boss, but Bai Jie is the one with the least authority.

After Bai Jie explained the whole story, Chen frowned in dissatisfaction: "These guys are really outrageous. They start causing trouble as soon as the three of us are gone. You're a useless guy too, you can't even control them."

"Boss, I'm not as good at fighting as you. I'm just an office worker, and an outsider at that. It would be a miracle if they listened to me," Bai Jie said with a wry smile. "Speaking of which, why are you watching horror movies today? I remember you didn't like watching movies, did you?"

"You said it yourself, today is the Ghost Festival, can't we watch some horror movies? Go make your dinner, mind your own business." Chen rolled her eyes at Bai Jie and turned back to watch the movie.

Bai Jie was somewhat used to Chen's indifferent attitude. He never expected to be noticed by Chen. He was already very satisfied to be able to live under the same roof as Chen.

"Alright, let's cook. Don't think about anything else."

......

At 10 p.m., Bai Jie clipped the bookmark to his pocket, put down the book "Basic Battlefield Command" in his hand, and stretched vigorously.

"Alright, I've finished my homework for the day, time to go to sleep."

The Guard Bureau's mission is to protect Lungmen's security, but Lungmen is so large and the Guard Bureau only has so many people, it's impossible to assign personnel to every location. Therefore, an excellent commander is essential.

Swire is currently the commander, but no matter how outstanding Swire is, she is still just one person without a deputy. So, to make up for this, Bai Jie was put in charge of Swire's training as a deputy replacement.

"Battlefield command is really troublesome. Manpower allocation, terrain, enemy characteristics... I still have a lot to learn. That's all for today—"

"Crack!"

Just as Bai Jie was muttering to himself, the door that had been closed suddenly opened, and a cool breeze quickly blew into Bai Jie's room.

Turning around and walking to the door, Bai Jie looked outside but didn't see anyone: "Strange, how did the door open if no one's here? I closed it tightly."

After closing the door again and making sure it was secure, Bai Jie turned off the light and lay down on the bed.

"Crack!"

However, just as Bai Jie lay down on the bed, the door was opened again. This time, it wasn't just opened a crack, but was opened completely, revealing a pitch-black living room outside.

"Holy crap, is it haunted?!"

Bai Jie was certain that he had closed the door properly, and it was absolutely impossible for it to be blown open by the wind; it was only possible that someone else had opened it.

However, since it was opened by someone, someone must have come in, but Bai Jie did not see anyone.

Therefore, the only thing that could open the door... is a ghost!

"No, calm down, Bai Jie! How could ghosts possibly exist in this world? Even if ghosts are a race, phantoms definitely don't exist. This must be someone's prank!"

Bai Jie took a construction helmet from under the bed and put it on, then took out a baseball bat that he had been hiding in the closet for a long time. He looked at himself fully armed and nodded in satisfaction.

(This equipment was originally intended to deal with thieves, but I never expected it would be used to catch ghosts for the first time...)

He tiptoed to the door, leaned against it, and looked out into the living room. Bai Jie's night vision wasn't very good, but he could still tell that there was no one in the living room.

"Thump..."

Suddenly, a sound came from above. Bai Jie subconsciously looked up and saw a pair of eerie eyes emitting a green glow. Long hair, like a waterfall, hung down under the pull of gravity, with the ends of the hair even touching Bai Jie's face.

"ghost...."

After uttering just that one word, Bai Jie fell straight down, his eyes wide open, like a dead man who died with his eyes wide open.

Upon seeing Bai Jie collapse, the ghost on the ceiling rolled its eyes and then fell down, reaching out to check Bai Jie's breath: "Still alive, just stunned."

"What a disgrace, to be so easily frightened."

The lights in the living room were turned on, and Chen, dressed in pink pajamas, came out of her room, looking at Bai Jie lying dead on the floor with disdain.

"I'm sorry, Hoshiguma, for making you come all this way."

[Oni] — Hoshiguma — smiled, straightened her deliberately messy hair, and took off her green contact lenses, saying with a smile, "Anyway, I can't sleep tonight. But why did you make me scare Shiro? Is it because today is the Ghost Festival?"

"Well, that's one reason. Thank you for your hard work. Would you like to stay here?"

Hoshiguma waved her hand and said, "No need, I have some drinks planned with some people, I'll be going now. Call me if anything urgent comes up."

After saying that, Hoshiguma pushed open the apartment door and walked out.

After Hoshiguma left the apartment, Chen walked over to Bai Jie, picked him up in one scoop, and threw him onto his bed.

"Idiot, I've hinted at it to you so many times, why can't you see it? You blockhead."

As she said this, Chen gently closed Bai Jie's eyes, then lay down next to him, hugged him tightly, and turned off the light with her tail.

"Sleep with me tonight, Bai Jie."

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The next day, inside the Lungmen Guard Bureau.

"I saw a ghost! I really saw a ghost!" Bai Jie said to G with a terrified expression. "Last night, right here at my house, I was just about to go to sleep when a ghost appeared, floating above my head. Its eyes were a terrifying green!"

"Don't joke around, Lao Bai. With Boss Chen in charge of your place, how dare a ghost go there? It would probably be chopped down by Boss Chen the moment it appears. -- Ah, good morning, Boss Chen!"

"Holy crap! Boss Chen!"

Upon hearing G's words, Bai Jie immediately turned around and bowed to Chen Jing, who was walking towards him. However, it was unclear whether it was just his imagination—

(Why does Boss Chen seem to be in a really good mood today?)

Everyone in the Lungmen Guard Bureau, looking at Chen's beaming face, couldn't help but have the same thought at the same time.

Incidentally, thanks to Bai Jie's vigorous promotion after that, the legend of the "Green-Eyed Ghost" spread throughout Lungmen, even evolving to the point where merchandise was sold every year during the Ghost Festival.

P.S.: Update

P.S.: I only realized today that yesterday was the Ghost Festival, so I rushed to finish this chapter. From now on, these kinds of holiday bonuses will basically all be sweet moments—I don't even know if they count as sweet, since many people say my sweet moments aren't sweet enough.

P.S.: It's now available for purchase! The usual three-part combo has been changed to a four-part combo: please recommend, please vote, please tip, and please subscribe!

Section 130, Chapter 30. The King of the Cooing Hair: Lancelot!

Just as the King of Conquerors unleashed his trump card, dragging Diarmuid into his Reality Marble, Artoria, in another subspace, also encountered her opponent.

“AAAArrrrr!”

A low, guttural cry echoed through the space, sounding like the groans of the dead from the dark depths of the earth.

Artoria, who had been targeted by him more than once, couldn't possibly have misheard this voice.

“RUAAAAAAA!!!”

Almost at the same time that the sound cut off, a steel storm forged by modern technology swept towards Artoria like a real storm, and in Artoria's vision, the berserk Black Knight was standing not far away, holding a heavy machine gun.

Instinctively, she rolled over to dodge the rapidly sweeping steel storm, and Artoria quickly changed into her silver armor, then began to run at top speed through the warp.

Seeing that Artoria had dodged his barrage, Berserker threw away the heavy machine gun that was already out of ammunition and took out two submachine guns instead, and the crimson flames bloomed again in the dark subspace.

The Berserker's shadow, illuminated by the muzzle flash, stretched into an alien form, baring its fangs and claws on the basement wall, like a projection of some great being on Earth. The blooming crimson flames, accompanied by a metallic storm that could tear everything apart, instantly approached Artoria.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!"

Anything that Berserker holds becomes his Noble Phantasm. Therefore, the submachine guns in his hands are all Noble Phantasm level. The ammunition fired from these Noble Phantasms is no longer a toy that is ineffective against Servants. If you are hit, you will lose your ability to move on the spot!

So-called Heroic Spirits are mostly beings who have left their mark in past history and mythology. However, in other words, the main weapons of Heroic Spirits are basically cold weapons. Gilgamesh is a complete exception. The vast majority of Heroic Spirits are armed with swords, spears, axes, bows, and the like.

When these heroic spirits, skilled in cold weapons and who roamed the land during the era of cold weapons, face modern firearms—especially firearms transformed into Noble Phantasms—the outcome is naturally only one: