Chapter 84: Registration

Handling identity registration for two girls who might not even qualify as “human” was a completely new experience for Yu Sheng. But as soon as he sat down in front of Hu Li’s form, he realized that this was only new to him — in the eyes of the Special Duty Bureau, it was probably nothing special at all.

Because the very first line of the form read:

*If the registrant is a long-lived species (average lifespan of 1,000 years or more), directly fill in the age as a percentage and write the species’ average lifespan after the blank; if the registrant’s species does not have a concept of gender, black out the gender column; if the registrant cannot use pen-like tools for writing, or uses special secretions such as pheromones as the primary identifying characteristic, please have the staff assist with sampling or filling. For other special circumstances, explain in the attached sheet and have the staff member review and sign.*

Right after that came a long string of disclaimers. The main content could be summed up in one sentence: The Special Duty Bureau knows that all kinds of bizarre things exist in this place, and we have done our best to take into account everyone’s strange life forms and racial taboos. If you still feel offended, take it up with the Council.

Yu Sheng sat at the table, staring at that long string of disclaimers and filling instructions for quite a while. It wasn’t until he flipped to the second page that he actually saw the spots for registering name, gender, age, and address…

He raised his head and glanced at Ren Wenwen, who was sitting nearby: “…Ordinary people in Border City definitely don’t fill out a form like this for their ID cards, right?”

“Of course not,” the young Special Duty Bureau clerk immediately nodded. “The form for ordinary people is much simpler. This one is specially prepared for ‘guests’ who need to live long-term in the Borderlands but aren’t human. Later, the ID documents prepared for these two young ladies will also be special versions — they look roughly the same as ordinary ID cards on the outside, but they have information recorded inside that can only be read by specific devices in specific departments. If they ever run into trouble, this also serves as a channel for ‘special residents’ to seek help and receive preferential treatment.”

“Do you often handle this kind of ‘business’?” Yu Sheng asked curiously.

“Definitely fewer than the number of regular resident file registrations, but we still add several thousand to ten thousand new files every year,” Ren Wenwen said without much concealment. “In a place like the Borderlands, there are always ‘travelers’ from everywhere applying to stay for all sorts of reasons.”

Yu Sheng listened very seriously, and a strange… stirring gradually arose in his heart.

The form before him, with all its strange content, suddenly gave him a real, tangible sense of this bizarre Borderlands — of that world beyond the everyday.

Beside him, Eileen had already grabbed the ballpoint pen, which looked especially thick for her, and was hunched over the table, filling out her form with great difficulty — it was quite a challenging task for her, especially since the pen was almost as long as her arm, and an A4 sheet of paper was nearly half her height. But this time, she didn’t ask for anyone’s help. Instead, she worked very seriously and diligently, even looking quite enthusiastic.

Yu Sheng also lowered his head and carefully wrote the name “Hu Li” on the form before him.

Then he got stuck on the next item.

“Benefactor?” The fox girl noticed his hesitation and asked curiously.

“…How old are you this year?” Yu Sheng looked at the demon fox maiden before him with a slightly strange expression, but as soon as he said it, he felt something was wrong. “Ah… no, first I need to ask what the average lifespan of your race is… and that’s still not right — does one ‘year’ in your age correspond to one ‘year’ in the Borderlands?”

Hu Li tilted her head. Her silvery-white, fluffy big ears twitched in the air, as if she hadn’t quite processed the question.

After two or three seconds, she hesitantly spoke: “Probably over two hundred years old? We reach adulthood at one hundred and eighty, but I don’t know how long I can live. Mom and Dad said that when you don’t want to live anymore, you ‘return to the Great Way,’ but they said that’s not death — it’s becoming one of the people up in heaven…”

Yu Sheng: “…”

He looked at the clerk girl beside him for help.

Ren Wenwen pointed to the age column: “Just write ‘Can live a really long time.’”

Yu Sheng: “…That’s allowed!?”

“If you think that’s not formal enough, you can just write ‘Don’t know,’” Ren Wenwen said very seriously. “A lot of people fill it in that way every year, because some races are just exceptionally long-lived without having a clear concept of lifespan, and other races go through rapid life-and-death cycles in terms of years — their age isn’t even measured in ‘years and months’ but by ‘generations.’ Even they themselves can’t keep track.”

Yu Sheng opened his mouth, then looked at the next column: “…I don’t know where to put ‘place of origin.’ How do I fill that in?”

Ren Wenwen still had a serious expression: “Then write ‘From Elsewhere.’ Those from outside the Borderlands with unknown origins can be archived uniformly.”

Yu Sheng’s expression was a bit dazed: “…What about the ‘race’ column?”

Ren Wenwen pointed: “Check the box for ‘Attached Sheet,’ then flip to the last page. There’s an attached sheet — see if any option feels suitable.”

Yu Sheng flipped to the last page of that stack of forms, and a dense array of checkboxes slammed into his field of vision.

The very last line of the form caught his eye first; it was a “Remark”: *If your race has variable characteristics, please select “Mimicry Classification.” If your race is not included in any of the available categories, please write “Pending Addition,” and we will open a new category for you as soon as possible.*

A hint of admiration crept into Yu Sheng’s expression. When he looked up at Ren Wenwen, there was even a touch of respect in his eyes: “Your daily work must be pretty… complicated, right?”

“Not too bad, actually. I’m in the logistics department — the Special Archives Division is the one directly responsible for managing all this stuff. They really are busy. Regardless of gender, none of them have much hair left,” Ren Wenwen said, pointing to one of the items in the checkbox area. “Pick this one — ‘Beast Spirit or Anthropomorphic Shapeshifter.’”

Yu Sheng glanced at it and frowned slightly: “Why not ‘Spirit Being or Transcendent Humanoid’? I think that fits too…”

“That category comes with racial benefits — you can get half-price tickets on the subway,” Ren Wenwen said casually. “Besides, her tail looks more on the ‘beast spirit’ side. But it doesn’t really matter. If you don’t think it’s suitable, you can fill in something else. Just pick from the ‘Humanoid’ main category. Generally, nobody digs too deep.”

The more Yu Sheng wrote, the more amazed he became. He stealthily craned his neck to peek at Eileen’s side, seeing the little puppet earnestly checking the box for “Advanced Puppet or Alchemical Humanoid” and even writing a note in the remarks: “From Alice’s Cottage.”

After quite a while, the forms were finally completed.

To be honest, this wasn’t even any easier than doing homework for Little Red Riding Hood — the form was filled with so much messy and bizarre content that, if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes and heard Ren Wenwen’s explanations, Yu Sheng couldn’t have imagined those words could be used in an “identity registration.” No wonder filling this out required on-site assistance from a Special Duty Bureau staff member. If there hadn’t been help, the two items “Thought Type” and “Neural Evolutionary Classification” alone would have kept Yu Sheng busy for a whole day…

But on the other hand, many parts of these two forms were unbelievably lenient. For many items that simply couldn’t be filled in, Yu Sheng just followed Ren Wenwen’s guidance and wrote things like “Don’t Know,” “Random,” or “Any.” By the time he was done, he even started to doubt the professionalism of the Special Duty Bureau…

“Actually, you don’t need to worry. This form is designed on the principle of maximum adaptability. Generally speaking, when an ‘outsider’ registers their identity in the Borderlands, as long as they can fill in a quarter of the form’s content, that’s already enough to accurately describe their origin, purpose, and personal characteristics,” Ren Wenwen patiently answered Yu Sheng’s doubts. “We can’t expect a registration form to impose enough binding force on outsiders. The Borderlands has been running smoothly until now because it relies on an extremely vast and effective management system working in coordination.”

As she spoke, she took out a small device and placed it on the table: “Next, we need to collect biometric information. Since you two are both humanoid types, how about we collect fingerprints?”

Eileen raised her fingers: “I don’t have fingerprints.”

Ren Wenwen was taken aback: “…Then blood… puppets don’t have blood either… then how about collecting hair? Er, but puppets seem to dislike that a lot. How about scraping off some surface debris? Even from the arm would do.”

Eileen let out a sigh: “If you scrape it, it’ll turn into lotus root starch.”

Ren Wenwen: “…?”

“This is a long story,” Yu Sheng said, holding his forehead. “Her current body is temporary. Maybe you’d better not collect anything — it wouldn’t be useful anyway… It’s all made from materials bought at the supermarket.”

“Then… okay. The director said we could be lenient,” Ren Wenwen said with a slightly awkward expression. She picked up the two forms, gave them a rough glance, sighed again, and looked at Eileen. “Miss Eileen, the column for ‘Regular Form or Appearance Features’ can’t be filled in with ‘Good-looking.’ It should say ‘Humanoid’… Forget it, I’ll rewrite this page for you. In the end, you’ll need to sign to confirm. Also, you two should prepare — I’ll take your pictures in a bit. Miss Hu Li, can you hide your ears?”

Hu Li casually took off her ears and tossed them into her tail.

Ren Wenwen: “…Ah!?”

The next second, the young clerk suddenly realized what absurd thing she had just witnessed. She turned her head to look at Yu Sheng: “Mr. Yu, she-she-she-she just put-put-put…”

“Calm down,” Yu Sheng had long expected this reaction and instead found himself comforting her. “You work at the Special Duty Bureau now — you should broaden your thinking a bit.”

Ren Wenwen: “…”

After struggling to calm down for a while, the clerk finally managed to control her expression. Then she pulled out another stack of forms and placed them in front of Yu Sheng.

“Er, these are the registration documents you asked for. Before the two young ladies’ ID cards become valid, you can fill this out first.”

Yu Sheng’s heart stirred at once, and he quickly took the printed sheets.

*General Registration Form for Independently Operated Organizations/Groups/Agencies in the Borderlands*

A smile spread across Yu Sheng’s face.

Finally, it was his turn.

(End of Chapter)