As the Inspector finished speaking, Chi Yun Su sensed a shift in the Supervisor’s gaze toward her. It was no longer friendly or amiable but filled with scrutiny.
A Supervisor who dared to agree to recruit directly from Black Port was clearly no benevolent figure.
If she failed this test, Chi Yun Su would undoubtedly be sent back to Black Port. As for ‘Guo Ruofan,’ who was already halfway through the process of leaving Black Port and had a high chance of successfully becoming a Sorter, he certainly wouldn’t lift a finger to help her. In fact, he might not hesitate to silence Chi Yun Su—the only person who knew about this—and reclaim the Card hanging around her neck.
This test was one Chi Yun Su had to pass, and she had to do it well.
She understood all too well that the fates of valuable and worthless people were worlds apart.
Fully aware of her predicament, Chi Yun Su immediately focused on what she needed to do next.
Fortunately, this wasn’t a true dilemma for her.
No matter the situation, technical matters were settled by skill alone—and Chi Yun Su was not lacking in that department.
Chi Yun Su looked up at the machine towering three people high before her. Pipes from several pieces of equipment were densely connected to it, converging into a thicker pipeline that extended into the distance. Clearly, this machine, while not the core of the operation, was a crucial relay device.
For such a massive piece of equipment, locating the exact position of a single screw without any blueprints seemed impossible.
One could even say that even with blueprints, given the tens of thousands of screws hidden within the machinery, pinpointing where this tiny screw had fallen from would still be a daunting task.
But this world was different from the one Chi Yun Su had known before.
Here, there were Cards, and there was psychic energy.
Chi Yun Su walked over to the Card slot on the machine and skillfully opened the protective cover. Inside lay a deep green Card.
In this world, Cards automatically displayed different colors based on the complexity of their circuits, ranging from low to high: white, green, blue, purple, and yellow. The most advanced Yellow Cards shone with such brilliance that they were often called gold cards.
However, the color of a Card didn’t necessarily indicate its power or practicality—it merely reflected the number of card circuits.
For instance, Chi Yun Su herself could already produce blue Cards, some even tinged with purple. But compared to the Card around her neck, those were nothing special.
Of course, the Cards used in ordinary machinery weren’t as unique as the one Chi Yun Su wore. The Card before her now was still within her ability to study easily.
Using her psychic energy, Chi Yun Su carefully sensed the machine through the Card.
Cards were the heart of this world’s operations. All devices were designed around them, and once a Card was inserted, the entire apparatus became a unified whole under its connection. This allowed Chi Yun Su to effortlessly perceive every existing issue within the machine.
Naturally, even with this method, finding the exact position of a missing screw remained a challenge.
This was a machine that had been running for many years, and its problems were far from few. Chi Yun Su had to sift through the hundreds of issues she sensed, eliminating those unrelated to the fallen screw.
This was no simple task.Chi Yun Su calmly focused her mind to analyze the situation, while the others watched her open the protective cover and stare blankly at the Card, their eyes filled with confusion.
“What is she doing?”
“Could it be that she thought the screw was in the card slot, but after opening it, she realized there weren’t any screws used inside at all?”
“She just joined Mirror, and now she’s about to be fired again. How pitiful.”
“Sneaking around like that, she ran right into the old witch’s line of fire. There’s no helping it—just terrible luck.”
The others whispered among themselves, but the Inspector, who was secretly called the “old witch” behind her back, said nothing about Chi Yun Su’s actions. After carefully observing Chi Yun Su for a moment, she turned to the Supervisor standing at the door who had brought Chi Yun Su over. “Where did you recruit this person from?”
Under the Inspector’s scrutinizing gaze, the Supervisor’s heart tightened. He couldn’t help but curse Chi Yun Su several times in his mind, while hurriedly explaining, “She was recruited from the Qichi branch. She came today for the assessment and passed with a perfect score. I thought she was an outstanding talent, so I brought her to you right away, Master Sun…”
After listening to the Supervisor, the Inspector let out a cold laugh, as if hearing something ridiculous, but she said nothing further to him. Instead, she turned back to continue watching Chi Yun Su.
By now, Chi Yun Su had quickly eliminated most of the issues the machine had reported, leaving only about a dozen locations that required her personal inspection. Only by seeing the problem areas firsthand could she make a judgment.
After all, just because the Inspector had only thrown her one screw didn’t mean the transfer machine was missing only one screw.
Having previously taken on repair jobs, Chi Yun Su knew all too well how careless the engineers at the Cleaning Company could be.
Chi Yun Su closed the protective cover and prepared to head to the areas she needed to inspect, but she first heard the Inspector’s voice.
“You understand Cards?”
Chi Yun Su wasn’t surprised that this had been exposed. After all, to complete the task, she had no choice but to use her abilities as a card maker. However, she didn’t want others to associate her with the person selling goods in the West Second District of Black Port. So, she turned around and gave the Inspector an embarrassed smile, though her tone carried obvious pride. “I graduated from Long River Industries.”
Chi Yun Su didn’t directly answer whether she understood Cards or not. She also didn’t know much about what kind of school Long River Industries University was, but judging from the attitudes of the Cleaning Company employees and the Supervisor, it seemed like a name she could use to bluff.
However, the university that the Cleaning Company employees and Supervisor considered impressive clearly didn’t hold much weight in the Inspector’s eyes. Upon hearing Chi Yun Su’s words, she merely gave her an ambiguous look and said nothing.
Chi Yun Su couldn’t quite gauge the Inspector’s attitude, feeling it was a bit strange. Still, she had little room to maneuver at this point. Seeing that the Inspector had no intention of speaking further, Chi Yun Su scratched her head and continued her task of finding a home for the screw.
Among the dozen or so problematic locations, Chi Yun Su prioritized them based on the likelihood of being the screw’s home. She followed the order from highest to lowest probability and, by the third location, found other screws with wear patterns similar to the one she had.
With steady hands, Chi Yun Su returned the screw to its rightful place and effortlessly jumped down from the machine.
“I’ve put it back!” Chi Yun Su said to the Inspector, her eyes shining brightly.
The other repair technicians looked at her in disbelief.Fixing machines is never that simple. It only took a little over twenty minutes, and they are all experienced repair technicians. If it were truly that easy, they wouldn’t have been scolded back and forth by the Inspector so much!
With the Inspector present, they didn’t dare voice their doubts, but they couldn’t help but collectively follow Chi Yun Su’s gaze, turning to look at the Inspector.
The Inspector casually grunted in acknowledgment, not targeting Chi Yun Su further. Instead, he shifted his focus to the other repair technicians who were whispering among themselves and continued his verbal assault:
“A newcomer can do it, but you old-timers from Mirror can only tell me it’s impossible? Are you just here to collect a paycheck and do nothing? The two places the newcomer just visited—find out what’s wrong and fix it! Anyone who tells me they couldn’t find the problem or couldn’t fix it can get lost!”
At the Inspector’s words, the onlookers scattered like startled birds, quickly grabbing tools to begin their inspections.
The Inspector ignored these useless individuals and tilted his head toward Chi Yun Su, gesturing with his chin. “You, come with me.”
Chi Yun Su didn’t actually want to attract so much attention, but it seemed unavoidable now.
Well, gold can’t help but shine, even when forced.
However, following the Inspector wasn’t without its benefits—for example, it might make it easier to get fired.
As Chi Yun Su followed the Inspector out, passing by the Supervisor, she clearly saw him secretly giving her a thumbs-up.
Clearly, her contract was as good as secured.
After signing the contract with the Supervisor later, the next step would be figuring out how to get the Inspector to say something like, “If you can’t fix it, you’re all fired,” just as he had with the others.
Chi Yun Su’s mind began racing with calculations. Just as she was relaxing a little, she heard the Inspector in front of her say, “You know about the two engineers I fired after arriving here, right?”
Though phrased as a question, the Inspector’s tone was matter-of-fact.
Was this a warning? Chi Yun Su was puzzled but maintained the demeanor of a nervous new employee on the surface. “I’ll do my best to meet your expectations!”
The Inspector chuckled softly, ignoring Chi Yun Su’s response, and continued on his own. “Their names were Li Zheng and Cheng Su Yin.”
Chi Yun Su’s footsteps faltered as she slowly looked up at the Inspector, who had also stopped and was staring back at her intently.
These names were not unfamiliar to Chi Yun Su—they were both engineers from the Cleaning Company who had previously hired her to disguise herself and repair machines on their behalf.
The Inspector bringing this up now spoke volumes.
Meeting the Inspector’s meaningful gaze, Chi Yun Su calmly replied, “They must have done something unforgivable.”
“Indeed,” the Inspector agreed.