Enforcer Manual
Chapter 725 - 723: Day and Night_1

Chapter 725: Chapter 723: Day and Night_1

The night was exceptionally long, at least for Jock.

He hadn’t closed his eyes all night, and with all his strength, he couldn’t stop the anomaly that had swept through The First Region. When he returned to the company to investigate, he found that it wasn’t just his company that had temporarily halted operations due to widespread rest; most workers had slept soundly that night for the first time in ages.

Jock didn’t think it was a hallucination caused by his extreme fatigue. The things his eyes saw were indeed moving slower and slower. This one night seemed to last as long as two or even three normal days, with each minute dragging interminably. He sat at his desk and took an entire bottle of anti-fatigue medicine, but in the end, the stimulating effect of the medicine couldn’t hold back the tide of sleepiness. At dawn, he couldn’t resist the heaviness of his eyelids any longer, and he fell asleep on his desk.

When he woke up again, his secretary, who had taken half a day off, was there in his office.

A coat was draped over his body, and the work report had been neatly organized on his desk as usual.

11:21.

Without realizing it, six hours had passed. When he opened his eyes, he was surprised to find himself in an unprecedentedly refreshed state.

This wasn’t the same as being artificially agitated by large doses of anti-fatigue drugs. He felt rejuvenated from the inside out; all the accumulated fatigue and stress had been swept away, and all the indescribable discomforts in his body had vanished. Even the air seemed much fresher.

Jock couldn’t remember the last time he felt as clear-headed and invigorated as he did now.

But he had paid a price for it.

He had missed the High-level Parliament’s 9 a.m. regular meeting. There were several missed calls on his phone, and it seemed that the members of the High-level Parliament eventually gave up trying to contact him. They had held the meeting without him and then sent a summary of their decisions to his phone.

"How are the others? Are they all awake?"

After dealing with the outstanding issues on his phone, Jock asked nonchalantly.

The secretary reported, "They’re all awake. Everything in the company is proceeding as normal, and the work progress hasn’t been too badly affected."

"...Hasn’t been too badly affected?"

Jock paused, startled. Nearly the entire company’s staff had slept through the night, so logically, all operations should have come to a standstill.

"Everyone’s work efficiency today is very high."

The secretary hesitated, seemingly searching for the right words.

Based on her personal perception, work efficiency today had significantly improved after waking up from a good sleep. She personally thought that this kind of proper rest was a good adjustment for workers, but considering that saying this might make her boss suspect that she wasn’t dedicated to her job, which could lead to her being fired, she felt a surge of pressure and didn’t continue the topic.

The competition for the secretary position was intense, and countless people were eying her job. Although she had managed to sleep well for once, life had to go on, and she still faced unrelenting pressure.

"Let’s leave it at that for now."

Jock waved his hand, and the secretary left the office feeling relieved. She had thought the boss would be furious about her falling asleep during a call yesterday, possibly even deducting her annual bonus as a result, but the boss hadn’t mentioned it at all, leaving her without a chance to use the sob story she had prepared.

Perhaps it was just her imagination, but after a good night’s sleep, she felt that her boss’s tone had become much gentler.

Hopefully, this was a good sign.

After the office door closed, Jock sat in his chair and couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.

Last night, something strange had definitely happened.

He gathered his thoughts, recalling that according to his secretary, the anomaly began in the afternoon. Thinking back, he remembered that the feeling of exhaustion indeed started in the afternoon, and from the nighttime onwards, he felt that time had slowed to a crawl. To prove it wasn’t just his imagination, he had stared at the time on his phone for a solid minute.

That minute felt unbearably long, as if three to four minutes had passed in his perception.

He couldn’t believe it was a coincidence; it seemed more likely to be the work of a Psychic.

What was their goal?

The ability terrified Jock. Even he had ultimately succumbed to exhaustion, falling into a deep sleep just before dawn, and woke up after 11 a.m., meaning he had been unconscious for over five hours.

If the individual had murderous intent, he’d probably be a corpse by now.

It meant that the person would have had the opportunity to kill him and leisurely clean up the scene without leaving a trace during that time.

Yet he was still alive, and there were no signs of his phone or the important documents on his desk being lost or tampered with.

Jock could only speculate that he wasn’t the target, but rather was indiscriminately affected by the widespread deployment of the Psychic’s ability.

But,

An ability that covers the entire First Region?

Despite not having an in-depth study of Psychic Abilities, Jock remembered that there were only a few individuals who could target an entire city with their full power, and none of them had abilities that could make people lose consciousness.

An emergency meeting had to be convened, and the time should be set for...

As he looked at the phone screen, he suddenly froze.

12:15.

He had to scrutinize the numbers on his phone several times to confirm he wasn’t seeing things, and while he was doing so, the number had already switched to 12:17.

More than forty minutes had passed since he woke up?

This didn’t match his perception at all!

In his bodily perception, it had been at most a quarter of an hour to twenty minutes since he woke up, when a terrifying thought emerged in Jock’s heart. He unconsciously held his breath, and by the time he blinked for the sixth time, the time on his phone screen jumped to 12:18.

The flow of time had accelerated.

At least in his perception, the swiftly turning time seemed to be compensating for the part that had been dragged out last night.

An emergency meeting must be called!

The swiftly passing time once again affirmed Jock’s thought.

...............

Elsewhere.

Lu Xiang opened her eyes groggily, the glaring sunlight shining on her body. She squinted, turned over and cuddled further into her blanket, but immediately afterward, all her sleepiness vanished. She grabbed her phone abruptly and fell into a long silence at the sight of the 12:20 on the screen.

Had she really slept until noon?

What was more bizarre was that, upon careful reflection, she couldn’t even recall when she had fallen asleep.

All she remembered was returning to her room with Song Lan and chatting for a while; her memory of what followed was gone.

Lu Xiang distinctly remembered that it was still daylight when Song Lan finished instructing Yaku. If she counted from then, she had slept nearly 20 hours?

She, Lu Xiang, had become a sleepyhead addicted to slumber?

"Don’t panic, this is normal,"

Song Lan’s voice came from near the window.

Lu Xiang looked in the direction of the voice and saw that dumb bird Song Lan had somehow brought over a lounge chair and was comfortably leaning back in it, basking in the sun by the window. Clearly, Yeying had also been assimilated; in her bird form, she stood on Song Lan’s shoulder, tilting her head, feathers fluffed up, eyes narrowed to slits.

Under the sunlight, the scene involuntarily conjured the phrase "enjoying one’s later years" in Lu Xiang’s mind.

"You were the closest to me at the time, so the impact on you was quite significant."

Of course, this was a result purposefully brought about by Song Lan.

Describing Lu Xiang as the champion of staying up late wouldn’t be an exaggeration. So much time had passed since they left The Seventeenth Region, yet Lu Xiang hadn’t managed a single day of timely sleep.

Chronic sleep deprivation is a significant violation of health principles.

This is especially true in the year 2167, where due to the emergence of anti-fatigue medications, those who stay up late often take these pills like chocolate beans. Song Lan had nagged Lu Xiang about this numerous times, so lately she had been stealthily consuming them without his notice, and the two bottles of anti-fatigue medication she brought were almost empty.

Although the manufacturers always emphasized in advertisements that these medications wouldn’t burden the human body, Song Lan was a traditionalist who still upheld the belief that "all medicine has its toxin," convinced that long-term consumption of these drugs would inevitably affect one’s body.

For the workers of The First Region, always under high pressure, anti-fatigue medications had become an indispensable part of their lives, as they seemed to have pushed normal rest and sleep to the back of their minds.

"What exactly have you done?"

For a moment, all of Song Lan’s "previous offenses" flooded into Lu Xiang’s brain. She vividly remembered that just yesterday, this dumb bird tried to use "accidental incidents" to cover up his guilt, attempting to convince her that people like Chai Ke had died by accident.

And he had just mentioned the concept of "distance," which meant that she wasn’t the only one affected by Song Lan’s abilities.

She also thought of the many new friends Song Lan had recently made in The First Region and couldn’t help worrying for their personal safety.

"Old Lu, I’ve recalled it,"

"Hmm?"

"When Yaku came to consult me, I recalled it."

Song Lan gazed at the opposite buildings. After a solid sleep, the workers had returned to their posts, to that monotonous life, and Song Lan, a worker himself, deeply understood their feelings at the moment.

While working, they hoped time would speed by. During rest, they wished time would pass incredibly slow.

Regrettably, for most people, reality was the exact opposite.

The duration of suffering and torment often felt much longer in their perception, and they could only silently endure it all.

As the other party spoke, Lu Xiang felt that Song Lan, bathed in sunlight, gave her an indefinable sensation, somewhat resembling the piety and sanctity of a Believer preaching.

"My abilities were not born to defeat someone,"

Maybe it was the lighting, but Song Lan appeared blurred and distorted in her eyes, his voice as if coming from a distant place, piercing through the concepts of time and space, reaching directly into her mind, "This ability was born to bring happiness to all workers!"

"That’s not right."

But this time, Lu Xiang had developed an immunity to Song Lan’s deceptions, "I think you just don’t want anyone else disturbing your sleep."

If he dragged everyone into sleep, no one would come to bother him anymore.

In an instant, the halo of sanctity and piety in her eyes shattered.

Song Lan turned his face towards her, locking eyes for a long while.

"I’m also a worker,"

Song Lan said, "So the theory still holds."