Soul of Negary

Negary got off the car, turned around to knock on the window in a rhythmic manner and smiled to the driver: 〖 After the earthquake, the 7th domain’s terrain has become quite dangerous, so make sure to be careful on your way back 〗

The driver had a confused look in his eyes as he smiled and answered: “Don’t worry, I’ve been driving for many years, nothing will happen”

〖 That’s great to hear 〗 watching as the driver returned, Negary smirked. Although he didn’t care about there being spies and could even turn spies into people for him to use, there was always a need for some warnings, wouldn’t you say?

Looking at the lively busy streets, Negary headed straight towards the 7th domain’s public library. Not only did this place keep a lot of books, it also kept a few records of the local geography. Not too long after, a taxi arrived outside the library.

A young man wearing a uniform with a short haircut went inside the library, came up to Negary and whispered to him, following the library’s rules: “I am Luo Ping, member of the 7th domain D.E.R division’s Disaster Squad. Nice to meet you, mister Wang, I’m sorry to come without warnings, but section chief Li wanted to see you”

〖 The 7th domain’s D.E.R division? 〗

After examining the man named Luo Ping in front of him briefly, Negary had an understanding look in his eyes and followed him onto his electric car.

“Is mister Wang here to sightsee?” Luo Ping sat next to him and said with a steady unchanging voice, like a person that had everything figured out. He then formulaically added: “This is only a normal question; mister Wang doesn’t need to pay too much mind to it”

〖 You can think of it that way. One cannot blindly move forward if they wish to improve themselves. I found out this place had knowledge that interested me, so I came to check it out 〗 Negary smiled and said: 〖 Actually, my initial dream job many years ago was to become a librarian, not because I liked to read, but because I liked the relaxedness of being one 〗

“Is that so?” Luo Ping replied, seemingly uninterested in Negary’s answer.

The car peacefully made it to the D.E.R division, where Negary followed Luo Ping into the 7th domain section chief Li’s office.

Section chief Li was an old man nearing his 60s who was about to retire. Compared to Chang Xia, section chief Li lacked both ability and character. Perhaps, he had made some good contributions when he was young, knew his way around people, and maintained an amiable relationship with his superiors that he managed to obtain his seat as a D.E.R division’s section chief.

As a registered Authority Holder from another domain, it was natural that Negary had to go to the D.E.R division to announce his presence. However, such a matter didn’t require the section chief to personally act; the reason why this section chief Li wanted to see Negary was mainly to become acquainted with him.

He was already near the age of retirement so his body was becoming worse and worse by the day, but the D.E.R division had specifically issued an ultimatum that he couldn’t accept Negary’s [Black Crow] germs as he still held his seat. In fact, he wasn’t allowed to take the ‘slimming injection drug’ that Negary Inc. sold either.

However, these restrictions wouldn’t remain after his retirement, so this section chief Li wanted to take this chance to become well-acquainted with Negary. The main reason was that the loss of these restrictions also meant the loss of his value, without connections, it would be incredibly tough for him to obtain the [Black Crow] germs to extend his lifespan.

Thanks to section chief Li’s willingness to acquaint himself, Negary obtained quite a bit of information. Of course, while this section chief Li was a relatively pragmatic person, he also adhered to rules and regulations, he didn’t hesitate to spill the beans on everything that he could say, but kept his mouth completely shut when it came to things that he couldn’t mention.

This person might not have the same level of ability as Chang Xia and gave off the impression of a money-grubbing merchant, but he was also someone who knew his way around socializing and people, he was clear on what he could and couldn’t do.

“Then, let me bid you farewell here, mister Wang” section chief Li accompanied Negary all the way outside the building while maintaining his mechanically enthusiastic and non-intruding smile: “If you run into any trouble in the 7th domain, you can contact the D.E.R division”

“Very well, thank you section chief Li for your goodwill” Negary smiled and replied, if one took a closer look, they would find that Negary’s expression was very similar to section chief Li’s own. This was Negary learning from section chief Li.

Before this, his style was truly too perfect, although he had more than enough personal charm and charisma, to certain people, this made him seem too distant. Lowering himself a bit would instead help promote relations of either side.

As he was always perfecting himself, whenever he discovered a factor that would be beneficial to himself, Negary would study it after going through considerations, this way, he would only become stronger, in every sense of the word.

From section chief Li, Negary had learnt, or rather, had improved himself a bit more, he could now speak in people’s dialect with people and speak in ghost’s dialect with ghosts.¹

〖 But I really must say, as a section chief, he truly is a complete failure 〗 once again getting on an electric car, he was driven to the library while contemplating the various information he obtained from section chief Li.

〖 There is a very high chance that there are issues with Luo Ping, or rather, with the entire 7th domain D.E.R division as a whole 〗 Negary drew this conclusion. The reason he came up with this was partly from some of the information the section chief revealed, and partly from what Killer J learnt from Li Ching Yu.

Luo Ping was a Yue Bu native, and an Authority Holder, which coincided with the description of members of the [Survivors] organization. No matter how well-hidden [Survivors] were, the fact that an entire domain’s D.E.R division couldn’t recognize anything suspicious was, in and of itself, suspicious.

So Negary tried paying a bit of attention to the ratio of D.E.R division’s personnel, only to find that in this 7th domain where immigrants were more numerous than natives, most of the D.E.R division’s employees were actually natives.

〖 Outside of certain unique scenarios, all things follow a certain natural order, so when there is an issue with that natural order, something else must surely be influencing that order 〗

Recalling what he saw in the D.E.R division, every little gesture, expression, and habits, Negary managed to notice a lot of tiny issues.

However, this was still only a conjecture. Those natives weren’t necessarily members of [Survivors], there was only a large probability that they were.

〖 Hm? 〗 Negary suddenly looked outside the window to see Killer J among a crowd of protestors in front of a sightseeing spot.

Earlier, Killer J reported that he was being held by the police, who knew he’d be able to infiltrate the crowd so quickly.

Glancing at the protestors, Negary understood what they were protesting. They were Yue Bu natives who were objecting evil business practices, they believed that turning the old earthquake-ridden landscape into sightseeing spots would be the same as rubbing salt on the wounds of the survivors.

〖 This is quite an unexpected finding 〗 after making his way back to the library, Negary checked Yue Bu’s city planning 16 years ago and compared it to the current 7th domain, not leaving out any information he was able to access from 16 years ago, Negary quickly found a few suspicious areas.

〖 Right here 〗 after flipping through the records a few times, Negary confirmed a few spots to check out.