Book 4, Chapter 39: Cause Of The Question
Book 4, Chapter 39: Cause Of The Question
After his conversation with Advisor Pei, Chen Chuan returned to his house and brewed himself a cup of tea. Based on his experience, as long as the existences didn’t want to show themselves, it was difficult to find them.
The director from Ferris Wheel was a good example. No one had expected him to be possessed before the existence revealed itself. All they could do was to pay attention and wait for it to show its tail.
Chen Chuan took a sip of tea and tapped on his Realm Pass to check his recent assignments.
United Might and GreenSource Eco-Tech were his primary subjects of investigation.
Even before the Fu-Mu Entity’s propagation, United Might had been investigated and forced to pay a hefty penalty.
But United Might hadn’t suffered a major loss from it, because the money had been paid by the agent companies who liaised with them and the clients who hired the agent companies to work with them.
After they took up the deals to transport the propagated offspring, their reputation increased among other companies, which meant that they weren’t going to give up on having a branch in Jibei Road.
According to the Resolution Department, the company was going to send someone new to Jibei Road. It wasn’t going to be treated as an unimportant branch company any longer. Instead, the headquarters were going to invest a lot of money into the branch company and treat it as an important branch.
Based on the information, United Might’s new employees were going to arrive in September or October. By the looks of it, things were going to get exciting in Central City starting from September right up to the end of the year.
Since the new employees weren’t here yet, Chen Chuan could set United Might aside for now.
Instead, he was going to pay attention to GreenSource Eco-Tech.
Based on the information he had, this company kept a low profile. Even during the Fu-Mu Entity’s propagation, there was no concrete proof that it had hired mercenaries or sent employees to snatch a propagated offspring.
However, the company had always been conducting illegal bio-experiments in Central City. Since many of its labs were in the lower city district, the Resolution Department did not treat the company as its primary target of investigation when compared to the other conflicts in Central City.
This reminded Chen Chuan of the lower city district’s Plague Gang. GreenSource Eco-Tech should be supporting them, so the two parties should have deep ties. Right now, what Chen Chuan needed to pay attention to was the mutated insects scattered all over Central City. Even though the Resolution Department didn’t have any evidence, they were sure that GreenSource Eco-Tech was behind them.
Even though the insects had only overrun the lower city district, it caught the Resolution Department’s attention.
It wasn’t going to be easy to investigate GreenSource Eco-Tech. Chen Chuan was going to focus his investigation on the lower city district, but he had a feeling that he wasn’t going to get results any time soon.
This was not unexpected. Investigating and putting pressure on companies took time.
He checked his team members. His current team was made up of a little over twenty people assigned to him by the Resolution Department. Most of them were investigative resonators and investigators. Only a small number of them were field personnel.
Chen Chuan checked their information. Then, he contacted all of them one-by-one to talk to them a little bit before asking them to carry on with their investigations.
These people were respectful toward him and appeared to be responsible. Chen Chuan would even go as far as to say that they did everything by the book. This team would let him maintain the status quo, but if he wanted to dive into this deeper, he needed capable hands that he could trust.
After some consideration, he decided to get his merged space squad brought back to Central City. Aside from the amount he needed himself, he could give them the rest of the special medicine allocated to him.
This would give him three powerful team members that could win him all skirmishes.
He wrote a report to apply for Qin Qingque, Su Wei, and Yuan Qiuyuan to be transferred back.
He was also going to recruit his friends from Central City and Yangzhi City. If they were willing to join, he could form a squad that was loyal to him and him alone.
He immediately wrote a report to the World Ring Defense System. At the same time, he gave Advisor Pei a heads-up. Then, he contacted Wei Changan, his team, Feng Xiaoqi, Luo Kaiyuan, and the rest so that they could meet up a few days later.
By the time he was done, it was past 3 p.m.. Chen Chuan got up and went to train in his training room.
Suddenly, he heard rustling sounds from his Realm Pass, and it was followed by Chang Dong’s voice. “I’m outside your door, fellow faction member.”
Chen Chuan was mildly surprised, but he still walked out. Chang Dong was standing outside the door with a briefcase in hand.
Chen Chuan greeted the man and invited him into his living room before asking him to take a seat and pouring a cup of tea for him.
“The problem is settled, right?” Chang Dong asked.
“Yes. I got news about it at noon. The refined training faction acted quickly,” Chen Chuan reported.
“Of course they did. We sent two martial arts masters over.” Chang Dong grinned.
“Two martial arts masters?” Shock appeared in Chen Chuan’s eyes as he realized the weight of those words. It was no wonder why the refined training faction had acted so efficiently. They had faced truly great pressure.
Chang Dong continued, “The key lay in the evidence you provided. Through the radio and the cassette tape inside, we were able to prove that the refined training faction used a sinister mental attack that only martial arts masters can use.
“That’s why this was no longer your problem alone. It was an attack on the purity faction itself. We couldn’t just let this slide and pretend that nothing had happened.”
Chen Chuan nodded, then thought of another problem. “How did the Department of Administrative Affairs and companies react to the martial arts masters’ arrival?”
Two martial arts masters carried an immense amount of weight, so Chen Chuan was sure that the Department of Administrative Affairs and companies were strung tight with nerves. The resulting impact would definitely have been at least the size of a tidal wave.
“It’s nothing. The two martial arts masters were only passing by and never entered Central City. They only discussed a few things with some people in an honest and friendly way. What could have gone wrong?” Chang Dong took a sip of his tea and leaned back with a relaxed expression.
Chen Chuan nodded. It seemed like the purity faction was the type to act with a plan. Even if they decided to show their stance, they kept to certain rules.
That made sense. If they wanted others to keep to the rules, they couldn’t act however they wanted either.
“I have a question, though,” he said.
“Do you want to know why the person who attacked you did that?” Chang Dong asked.
Chen Chuan nodded.
Chang Dong sighed. “By now, you should know that you’ve reached the peak of what martial artists who climbed up from the bottom can reach. If you want to climb further, you need to sign an agreement with either the government or some company. The key to it lies in the agreement.
“Setting aside the government, each company’s agreement is different, but all of them are demanding and harsh. Besides the necessary limits, there is also one crucial component. They all want you to periodically provide them with your mutated tissue and blood.”
Chen Chuan narrowed his eyes at that.
“Right now, all companies are researching and developing implants, bioweapons, active biosentient entities, and other things. They also have all sorts of plans for other bio-experiments, so they need a lot of samples and experiment subjects,” Chang Dong said gravely.
“Martial artists, especially ones with great potential, have great research value due to their mutated tissue and blood.
“Of course, this isn’t limited only to martial artists. Naturally gifted people are valuable too, such as those gifted with mental energy.
“These people are captured or taken in by the companies. The lucky ones become executives, while the unlucky ones end up as test subjects.
“Most capable companies are doing this. The only difference is in their technical expertise and research direction.
“Based on what we know, some companies have already achieved a certain degree of success.
“So, we’ve deduced that this person wants your potential, and for that he needs you to join the refined training faction.”
After hearing this, Chen Chuan thought of many things.
“Don’t worry. We sent two martial arts masters to warn them. If that person doesn’t want a full-on confrontation between the two factions, he will keep himself in line,” Chang Dong said earnestly.
Chen Chuan nodded before asking, “What about the government?”
“Them? That’s even more complicated. Each country’s government is different. Some governments are just a larger company. What they do is no different from the mega corporations. Some are controlled by warlords. Some don’t impose strict rules on their martial artists, and some treat them severely.
“As for the Great Shun Republic, each Central City’s agreement is slightly different, but they don’t treat the martial artists as strictly as the companies. But if these martial artists don’t belong to their faction...”
He shook his head at that. “You should understand this more than I do, so I won’t say anything else about that.”
Chen Chuan hummed at that.
Chang Dong finished half of his tea in one go as if he was thirsty and leaned down to bring the briefcase to the table.
“I’ve brought you the pure essence you need. This time, we gave you three units. It should be enough. If you finish using them, then so be it, but if you can’t, I’ll take the remainder back.” He then patted the briefcase.
Chen Chuan cast it a glance. “That should be enough. Thank you, Mr. Chang.”
Chang Dong patted his belly and laughed. “As long as it’s enough, that’s great. It means that I won’t have to do all that traveling again. Alright, let’s talk about what we need to do next.
“Because of your case, we’ve managed to intimidate the refined training faction and fusion faction. For now, no one should bother us.
“I’m thinking about using this period of time to set up our branch. The faction has promised to give me an assistant. So, the three of us will be working together for a while.
“You just need to do your own thing and leave the rest to me, but we need a base. You’ve been here for a long time. Do you know of any place?”
“What are your requirements for the branch?” Chen Chuan asked.
“It’d be best if it were big. It doesn’t matter if it’s located in a secluded area, since we need a disturbance-free start,” Chang Dong said.
Those aren’t high demands, Chen Chuan thought. After some consideration, he said, “I know a few places that could work."