Chapter 466 - Tear Down the East Wall to Mend the West Wall
Chapter 466: Tear Down the East Wall to Mend the West Wall
Meng Chao scratched his head for a long time.
“Big Brother Peng, did you know… that the One Hundred Ways to Destroy Dragon City was… written by me?” he asked with slight awkwardness.
“Of course I know,” Shen Yupeng said. “That’s why I complained to you for so long!”
Meng Chao had nothing to say about that. “Do you think that my method is wrong and we shouldn’t solve the problem between superhumans and normal people?”
“Only children will try to differentiate between right and wrong. I’ve no interest and no energy to care whether your thoughts are right or wrong.” Shen Yupeng shrugged. “In any case, that’s the situation right now.
“Since our benefits are getting cut and the management is getting stricter with us, many of the secret police officers and adjudicators don’t see a future, so they took up jobs that offer better futures or created their own companies to go out of the city on pathfinding trips.
“By the way, to protect Dragon City’s order and to capture lost people who create vast damage, the Supernatural Tower has always issued a bounty list, right? There’s even a bounty hunter club. As long as you complete one of the missions up there, you get Supernatural Coins that will allow you to get cultivation resources.
“Originally, this work mode helped take off a lot of work from the adjudicator court’s shoulders. The bounty hunters have been great helpers for the secret police.
“But over the past few months, the Supernatural Tower has been cutting down its budget, and many of the rewards for lost people on the run have been reduced by one-third or half. A lot of the missions that got you Supernatural Coins have also been removed, so plenty of bounty hunters changed jobs. Those who haven’t are not as enthusiastic as before. That’s why the robbers got so many chances to take action.”
“Why?” Meng Chao was flabbergasted. “Why did the Supernatural Tower cut its budget?”
“Because they need to upgrade the defense systems of the old residential areas!” Shen Yupeng explained. “The ambush on Noble Descent hotel created a series of chain reactions, and the Colonization Party received a huge blow. The Home Party rose to power now and gained more support from the people.
“The Home Party said that the threat from the new zombies and undead is increasing day by day, and they threw the proposal to upgrade the defense systems for old residential areas at the Survival Committee, and through social media platforms and Blue Home, they let all the citizens know about this.
“By the way, I remember that the first residential area the Home Party modified is Blessed Heavenly Garden, the place where you once lived. The battle simulation video after Blessed Heavenly Garden was modified has been circulating among the people. Many of the citizens in the old residential areas are really envious, and they’ve been strongly requesting that the government use the same standards to solve the problem of their safety.
“Originally, the astronomical figures the Home Party proposed for the project wouldn’t have gotten the green light.
“But the Home Party has the popular opinion now, and they escalated the problem until it grew into whether the Survival Committee cares about the survival of the normal people when it is controlled by superhumans.
“The people are angry, and the Survival Committee can do nothing to stop it. They can only promise that at least one hundred old residential areas’ defense systems will be completely upgraded this year, and by next year, they will fully upgrade at least three hundred old residential areas to ensure that the number of anti-aircraft machine guns, infantry fighting vehicles, rocket launchers, and railguns in these residential areas is not lower than in middle-grade commercial housing areas.”
Meng Chao remembered now. He seemed to have heard Zhao Feixuan and the committee members of Blue Home mentioning this before.
“Isn’t this good?” Meng Chao asked.
“Of course it is,” Shen Yupeng said. “The problem is, there are only a limited number of resources in Dragon City. It’s impossible for us to create so much manpower, resources, and high-grade crystals out of the blue to fully upgrade up to three hundred old residential areas.
“In the end, out of necessity, we can only use the budget from other areas, and that includes the budget from the Supernatural Tower. The superhumans all have to tighten our belts so that the normal people can be satisfied.
“I’m not saying that you’re solving one problem at the expense of another, but without sufficient cultivation resources as a stimulus, the bounty hunters won’t be very motivated. Instead of staying in the city to capture superhuman criminals, they will choose to go out of the city to hunt monsters. It’s more satisfying, after all, and that is a fact.
“Besides, Dragon City is expanding nonstop. There is an increasing number of superhumans in the forward operating bases and developing lands in the fog. The number of superhumans in the city has fallen to the lowest over the recent ten years, so you can say that Dragon City’s awareness and defense toward human criminals has fallen to an all-time low over the past ten years.
“If this large-scale robbery is really a brand new attack by the abnormal beasts, just as you said, these creatures really hit us where it hurts.”
Meng Chao thought about it.
Recently, he heard that quite a lot of his friends in the superhuman circle had gone out of the city on pathfinding trips and explorations.
Everyone wanted to kill monsters while they were launching the tactical counterattack and get more cultivation resources so that they could reach greater heights.
Very few people were willing to stay in Dragon City and handle complicated and thankless problems.
“Speaking of which, you don’t have to be too worried,” Shen Yupeng said faintly. “Even though being in secret police isn’t something easy, there will be people who are willing to do it. I’m still around, aren’t I? I think that I won’t leave the adjudicator court for the rest of my life.”
“Big Brother Peng, your determination is strong.” Meng Chao was a little touched. “You knew that being in secret police is a thankless task, but you’re still willing to sacrifice your entire life for the safety and order of Dragon City. It’s no wonder why I felt like we’ve known each other for a long time from the moment we met!”
“It’s not a problem of determination. It’s mainly because I have subsidies from my family, and being in secret police is purely in my interest,” Shen Yupeng admitted openly. “The poor people who have to rely on their own strength to take care of their families and earn a sufficient amount of cultivation resources are not suitable for being the secret police and adjudicators.
“But people like us still have some money at home. We can solve the problems we face in terms of cultivation, so it’s fine for us, no?”
Meng Chao found himself speechless again.
He wrote the One Hundred Ways to Destroy Dragon City not only because he wanted to change the relationship between the superhumans and normal people for the better, but because he had an even more important goal: to limit the power of the nine great cultivation families.
They could do whatever they wanted, and it increased the speed at which the superhuman circle solidified. This was not beneficial to anyone, including the nine great cultivation families themselves.
But why was it that after all the fierce changes, they ended up forcing away all the poor superhumans from vital organizations like the adjudicator court and only rich superhumans like Shen Yupeng who do not lack money were left?
Meng Chao was never skeptical about Shen Yupeng and even Lu Siya’s moral views. Both of them were his coattails—no, his good friends.
He did not have extreme hate toward the rich, either. He did not believe that those who were born in the nine great cultivation families and lived in Dragon City No.1 were definitely bad people.
The point was, based on what he remembered of his previous life, the nine great cultivation families would end up being deformed, twisted existences and would interfere with the normal development of Dragon City’s civilization, which would send them down the path of destruction!
This was a major problem.
But it was not something Meng Chao could solve right away.
He should think about it once he was done with the Deification Capsule problem.
Meng Chao organized his thoughts and stated the abnormal beast research department’s stance on this matter.
Shen Yupeng then mentioned that even though the two law enforcement organizations had some minor misunderstandings with each other while they were fighting for cases and budget, when it came to major cases that concerned their lives and deaths, they still knew what was more important and how they should act.
The scale of the chain robberies this time was really huge, and the Deification Capsules were really bizarre. They could break the boundaries between normal people and superhumans and destroy the societal order that had only taken shape after decades.
There was not even a need for societal order to really collapse. If some part of it was destroyed, the might of the Survival Committee and the Supernatural Tower would be sullied and damaged by the superhuman criminals, which would have an irreversible effect.
It was necessary for the adjudicator court to work together with the research department.
Speaking of which, if the two law enforcement organizations really wanted to work together, they would need an adjustment period.
But speed was the most important thing in war. Regardless of whether it was the abnormal beasts or some other dangerous person who concocted the whole scheme in the dark, they would definitely not give Dragon City’s government time to catch its breath.
Hence, it was the higher-ups’ problem as to how they wanted to work together. Shen Yupeng and Meng Chao were the vanguard which rushed to the frontlines. They could just work together first and carry out the investigation.
“That’s just to my liking!” Meng Chao nodded readily. “I’ve just reached Heaven Realm, and Superstar was robbed. If I don’t find the mastermind and cut him to pieces, I can forget about staying in the superhuman circle!”
“If that’s the case, I’ll bring you to Universe Insurance. I believe that with those outstanding instincts you showed during the ambush of Noble Descent Hotel and the Broken Star Club’s resources, you will definitely be able to help us crack the case.”
Shen Yupeng jumped out of the medical cabin.
“Universe Insurance?” Meng Chao was a little surprised. “Aren’t we going to the adjudicator court to investigate the case?’
“Didn’t I tell you? The adjudicator court is currently tight on manpower and money. It’s also tied down by more than one hundred robberies. I believe that with the intellect of the mastermind, these one hundred or so robberies are just a smokescreen and a huge bluff. It won’t give us many valuable clues. Even if we continue investigating them, it’ll be useless.”
Shen Yupeng smiled faintly and said, “Besides, the secret police is law enforcement. We have to adhere to the basic rules and moral limits, so there are plenty of times when our actions are limited.
“Universe Insurance is one of the largest insurance companies in Dragon City. We’ve accepted a lot of property insurance for many companies and personal accident insurance for support-class superhumans. Plenty of them suffered severe losses during the crimes last night. If we have to insure them based on the highest standards, not only will Universe Insurance have to declare bankruptcy straightaway, even the headquarters and all of Universe Corporation will suffer a major blow.
“Now, the people in Universal Insurance are like howling mad dogs. Trust me, they’ll be willing to do anything and trample over all their moral limits to get to the bottom of this.”
Meng Chao knew that the threshold to get insurance was one hundred times higher in Dragon City than on Earth.
The reason behind it was simplee, because the chances of property and lives being threatened here was also one hundred times higher than on Earth.
Even among the nine great cultivation families, there were only a measly two or three families who had the strength and resolution to venture into the insurance business.
Universe Corporation was one of them.