Dude, something's really wrong with your abilities.

Chapter 66 The Invisible Man

Director Liu's office always had its curtains drawn and was filled with smoke.

Chen Shi felt suffocated as soon as he walked in, and the first thing Sun Tiemei did was to open the window to let in some fresh air.

Director Liu was not a strict person and was considered approachable by his colleagues. When he saw Sun Tiemei and the other person come in, he put out his cigarette in the ashtray.

"sit."

Director Liu gestured for Sun Tiemei and Chen Shi to sit down, and then got straight to the point.

"These past two months, things have seemed calm on the surface, but in reality, things are tense beneath the surface. Tie Mei, as you know, we've been secretly investigating the mole within our ranks."

Sun Tiemei nodded: "I just don't know how far things have progressed."

Director Liu leaned back in his chair, a bitter expression on his face.

"In the past two months of field operations, apart from your Group 5, the other three groups all experienced intelligence leaks. As a result, the three groups were ambushed, almost resulting in casualties."

"We've arrested a few people, and the only thing we can be sure of right now is that there's a mole within the bureau who tipped us off."

At this point, Director Liu's voice lowered.

"But this person is too good at hiding his true nature."

"To this end, I also sought help from the headquarters' inspection department. We spread false information and monitored the movements and communication records of suspicious individuals. We used all the conventional methods available. Each time, we were able to confirm that the leak had actually occurred, but each time we couldn't find any evidence to hold us accountable."

A brief silence fell over the office.

After a moment, Director Liu continued, "We've communicated with headquarters, and based on the characteristics of the multiple leaks, the other party most likely possesses a special ability."

"They speculate that it might be a kind of superpower that weakens oneself."

Seeing Chen Shi's confusion, Director Liu explained.

"Simply put, he works at the bureau every day and meets everyone every day, but everyone subconsciously ignores him. Even if you have clearly seen him, you will forget about it as soon as you turn around."

Sun Tiemei asked, "Are there any people with such supernatural abilities in that bureau?"

"The ability files of all personnel have already been checked, and there is nothing there."

Director Liu sighed, then turned his gaze to Chen Shi, his expression becoming amiable.

"Comrade Chen, do you know why I specifically called you over?"

He didn't wait for Chen Shi's reply, and just chuckled to himself.

Chen Shi recognized the smile; it contained a hint of praise, but the core message was that a heavy responsibility was being entrusted to him.

"How long have you been with the company?" Director Liu suddenly asked a seemingly unrelated question.

Chen Shi was slightly taken aback, quickly calculated in his mind, and honestly answered, "Two months and three days."

"How many people in the bureau do you know?" Director Liu continued to ask.

Chen Shi felt a little embarrassed by the question.

He had only been with the company for a short time, and his daily routine consisted mainly of handling cases and getting to know the Fifth Group, resulting in a very limited network of contacts. Apart from his own people in the Fifth Group, he barely recognized a few people from the Intelligence Section, Technical Section, Publicity Section, and Equipment Room, plus two or three more people he met during a massage session with the Ninth Group.

He had only heard of people like Sister Zhou from the administrative department, a well-known socialite throughout the entire organization, but had never interacted with her.

"I've been busy and haven't had a chance to get to know her..." Chen Shi scratched his head.

To everyone's surprise, Director Liu's smile deepened after hearing this: "That's good."

Now, Sun Tiemei and Chen Shi looked puzzled, completely baffled.

Director Liu explained earnestly: "According to headquarters' speculation, this ability may make people who spend more time with him and become more familiar with him more likely to develop 'cognitive antibodies' and habitually ignore him."

"But you are different."

Director Liu looked at Chen Shi: "You're a newcomer, a blank slate, with no preconceived notions about anyone. You can see things that others can't, but you can see them more objectively."

Chen Shi really wanted to say that he wasn't that great.

"Furthermore, since you joined the company, you've been involved in cases large and small, and the organization has seen your character, abilities, and loyalty. Therefore, we hope you will give your all in this internal case as well."

After saying that, Director Liu pulled a top-secret document from his drawer and pushed it in front of the two men.

"These are the three suspects identified by the Supervision Department through repeated cross-referencing."

"But I can tell you, the files of all three are very clean."

Director Liu opened the document and introduced the information of the three people one by one.

"The first one is Zhao Lei from the Logistics Support Department. He has been with the company for six years. He can enhance the power of some superpowered equipment, which is a very basic auxiliary superpower. He also has a mild personality and an excellent reputation among his colleagues. He is recognized as a good guy throughout the entire company."

"The second one is from the archives, named Xu Man. She has been with the company for four years. Her special ability is visual memory, which allows her to remember everything she sees and accurately retain case files. She is in an internal service position. She is extremely introverted, burying herself in her work during the workday and leaving her post on time after get off work. She never participates in any private dinners or chats."

"The last one is Zhang Yue from the intelligence department. She has been with the company for five years. Her special ability is X-ray vision, which allows her to see through shallow obstructions. Three years ago, Sun Du recruited her from logistics to the intelligence department. She is a diligent worker and a law-abiding citizen."

The three individuals belonged to three completely independent departments: logistics, archives, and intelligence, and had almost no overlap in their daily work.

"Their only common point," Director Liu said in a somber tone, "is that at all the critical moments of field leaks and ambushes, these three people's cell phones had records of sending data to the outside world, and these records overlapped precisely multiple times."

"But we retrieved all the communication details and signal traces, and all the messages sent by the three people were normal. They were either work reports or daily messages, and the content was very normal."

"The timeline is clearly deadlocked, but we just can't find any evidence to prove the crime."

Director Liu looked at Sun Tiemei: "Tiemei, I'm sorry to trouble you. This time, I've decided to let Chen Shi lead the investigation. You're meticulous, and I need you to do everything you can to protect him and eliminate the traitors."

Sun Tiemei shook her head: "In the bureau's official business, there is no distinction between old and new staff; I will obey the arrangements."

After a moment of silence in the office, Chen Shi spoke up: "Director Liu, the bureau has been secretly investigating these three people recently, and has never directly contacted or interviewed them, right?"

"That's right, the entire investigation was conducted covertly, without any overt actions."

"These three are all outstanding employees in the bureau, with clean resumes and good reputations. Without solid evidence, we cannot act openly."

"Once we launch an investigation into these three individuals, the news will inevitably spread throughout the bureau. The secret targeting and investigation of outstanding veteran employees will directly shake morale, disrupt internal order, and even give hostile forces an opportunity to exploit the situation. The negative impact is too great, and we cannot afford to gamble with it."

"Therefore, the inspection department can only follow up covertly throughout the entire process; the methods used overtly are not feasible."

Chen Shi's mind raced through all the clues, and considering the current predicament, he slowly raised his eyes and shared his thoughts.

"Since all conventional methods are ineffective, we cannot use conventional methods to investigate."

This was obviously a pointless statement, but Chen Shi immediately followed up with a completely unrelated question.

Does the bureau have a regular internal social gathering every Mid-Autumn Festival? It's held every year, right?

Although Director Liu didn't know what it meant, he nodded: "That's right, it's a traditional team building activity that we hold every year."

"That makes things easier."