"Unrestricted Airspace?"
"A Forbidden Ruins that isolates everything inside its domain from everything outside. It keeps our battles with the enemy from spilling over onto ordinary people. The Night Watchmen of every city are issued three signboards capable of deploying 【Unrestricted Airspace】, managed by one person. Since we generally don't fight on the front line, people like me are also called 'Watchers.'"
Lin Qiye's eyebrow lifted. "In other words, you're the lookout."
"...If you can't say anything nice, say less of it." Zhao Kongcheng rolled his eyes.
"You said there were three ways to obtain a Forbidden Ruins. What's the last one?"
"The last is a god's bestowal—your situation." Zhao Kongcheng's face turned serious. "Some gods grant a portion of their own power to a human they've chosen, making that person their agent in the mortal world. A Forbidden Ruins gifted by a god is called a 'Divine Ruins.'
"But in exchange for the power, the agent also receives the god's directive. For some it's to destroy human society; for some, to protect it; for others, to find something for the god... In general, a god has only one agent, and that agent embodies the god's will.
"Of the dozen or so agents of gods who have appeared so far, most serve evil gods bent on destroying humanity's new order and dragging the world back into chaos. They founded an organization of their own—the Church of the Ancient Gods.
"Agents of benevolent gods exist too, but they're very few. As for how many agents the neutral gods have, we simply don't know."
Zhao Kongcheng rose, stepped up to Lin Qiye, fixed his eyes on his, and spoke one word at a time:
"Lin Qiye. What directive did Michael give you? Which side... do you belong to?"
Lin Qiye's eyes went blank. "I don't know. He never said."
It was the plain truth. Michael had looked at him once, from far away on the moon, and then he'd blacked out. The god genuinely hadn't spoken a single word!
Zhao Kongcheng's brow furrowed. "He said nothing at all? You've never heard His voice in your heart either?"
"No. Really, no!"
Zhao Kongcheng scrutinized Lin Qiye for a long moment, as if hunting for any sign of a lie, before finally looking away and sitting back down slowly.
"By our reckoning, Michael should belong to the neutral or benevolent camp—otherwise we'd have killed you long ago. But... if He gave you His Divine Ruins, why would He say nothing at all?
"What is He actually after?"
Lin Qiye frowned slightly. "What He's after, I don't know. But even if He'd given me a directive, I wouldn't carry it out. I have no interest in getting tangled up in this mess. Worst case, I'll just give these eyes back to Him."
With that, he stood. "If there's nothing else, I'll be going."
Not waiting for a reply, he turned to open the door.
"Hold—hold on!!" Zhao Kongcheng shot up and planted himself in the doorway, staring into Lin Qiye's eyes. "You've asked your questions and now you're just leaving? What about me?"
"You? You can enjoy the passion in here by yourself." Lin Qiye answered gravely.
"No—I mean... aren't you going to ask about me? Who I am?" Talking to this kid was exhausting.
"What you are is none of my business." Lin Qiye kept opening the door.
Zhao Kongcheng clamped a hand over the handle. "Why do I know so much? What kind of organization stands behind me? What do we do? None of that makes you curious?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"By the logic of every film and novel, once I learn you people exist, I have exactly two options left." Lin Qiye held up two fingers. "Either I join—or I'm made permanently incapable of leaking the secret. Killed, locked up, brainwashed..."
"...Watch less fucking television!" Zhao Kongcheng was floored. "Besides—you don't know the first thing about us. How do you know joining wouldn't be a good choice?"
Lin Qiye arched an eyebrow. "So you're saying—even if I learn everything and still choose not to join, I won't be in any danger?"
"Of course not! We're soldiers, more or less. At most we'd have you sign a non-disclosure agreement. That stuff you listed is pure nonsense!"
"Then I don't mind listening." Hearing that, Lin Qiye sat back down.
Zhao Kongcheng sighed. A few minutes of conversation with this brat was more draining than a full day's stakeout!
"In 1922, after our survey team discovered the first mythological creature—the chaos dragon, Leviathan—Great Xia's leadership urgently established a military organization to stand ready against mythological incursion: Special Biological Response Team 139.
"Back then, our technology lagged badly, and we knew nothing about the world we were suddenly facing—so the so-called Special Biological Response Team was mostly for show. It wasn't much real use.
"As time went on, we observed more and more mythological creatures, attempted contact with a few of them, and discovered the secret of the Forbidden Ruins. We began training specialized combat personnel.
"As we uncovered more and more Forbidden Ruins owners, we realized that because they appear at random, there was no way to fold every one of them into the military. So Team 139 gradually evolved into a special half-military, half-civilian form.
"Today, we call this special organization... the 'Night Watchmen.'"
Lin Qiye considered. "So your purpose is to protect Great Xia from the depredations of those evil gods?"
"More precisely—from all mythological creatures."
"Is there a difference?"
"Of course. As I said, which creatures appear is random and has nothing to do with power. So what descends isn't only the mighty gods everyone knows by heart—there are also lesser things that exist only in countryside folklore or minor legends. The Ghost-Faced Men you met last night come from rural horror tales.
"Creatures like that—lacking world-ending power, but a threat to human society—we collectively call 'mysteries.'"
"I see." Lin Qiye nodded. No wonder the thing had seemed vaguely familiar—it had been born from village ghost stories all along.
"So you see—we're soldiers too! Soldiers who defend home and country! We exist so the people of Great Xia never have to face those horrors. Isn't that noble? Isn't that cool?!" Zhao Kongcheng launched into an impassioned sales pitch.
"Very noble. Very cool. I respect you all—truly." Lin Qiye's expression had turned solemn, and he wasn't joking; genuine, deep respect showed in his eyes.
A smile spread gradually across Zhao Kongcheng's face. "Then you'll..."
"I'm not joining."
"..." The smile froze solid. "WHY?!"
"I can't leave." Lin Qiye's eyes were utterly serious. "There's too much I still have to do..."
"What could possibly matter more than defending home and country?!"
"I have an aunt, and a younger cousin." Lin Qiye gazed out the window, his expression perfectly calm. "My aunt isn't that old, but for Ah Jin's sake—and for a useless invalid like me—she's worked day and night in that factory, ten years without a break. Her body's nearly used up...
"She's a stubborn one, you know. She'll sit on the stool in the living room kneading her neck until the tears come, and still insist through her teeth that she's doing yoga. Very good for the health, she says...
"I'd be sitting right across from her. She thought I couldn't see.
"She has lived too carefully. And too tired.
"My cousin is clever, and devoted. But he's... still too young to carry this family.
"I have too much to do.
"I need to earn money and support this family. I'm going to buy Auntie and my cousin a big house. I'm going to make sure Auntie never has to go back to that miserable factory again!
"I'm going to put my cousin through university. He and Auntie are going to live a good life!
"For ten years, they never once gave up on the dead weight that was me. Now that I'm finally whole—how could I abandon them?
"What you do is lofty. It's great. If circumstances allowed, maybe I would join you...
"But the me of right now just wants to stay steadily at their side...
"and guard this home."