Chapter 121: An Unsettling Request
by xennovel“I can answer a few of Mr. Su’s questions!”
Amidst the babble of teasing and discussion whose truth was uncertain, Chen Jing, seated opposite Minister Shen, gently raised her head to look at the round-faced middle-aged man. Her face was somewhat pale now, her complexion poor. Following Professor Bai’s advice, she had already lifted the influence on herself, so the burden of the recent surgery fully manifested.
Before speaking, she lightly pressed her lower abdomen, trying to make her voice sound stronger:
“Mr. Lone Soldier’s purpose in leaving the city shouldn’t be to escape. I’m very confident about this point.”
“As for delaying the upcoming inquiry, that’s even less likely. He’s very rational; he knows delaying is useless. Therefore, he’ll likely have only two reactions to our questions: one, if he doesn’t want to say something, he won’t; two, he’ll report truthfully.”
…
Speaking up to here, she subconsciously glanced at Professor Bai.
There were some things she didn’t intend to say in such a meeting, like the issue Professor Bai had discovered.
Thus, she merely paused slightly before continuing with her suggestion: “I have always trusted Mr. Lone Soldier. I can understand Minister Shen’s concerns, but I don’t believe being overly wary of an Ability User who serves the High-wall City diligently, even showing distrust towards him, is conducive to maintaining order. On the contrary, I think it’s very dangerous.”
Before this attack occurred, Mr. Lone Soldier and I handled an abnormal incident together. You know the specifics; the one who caused it was Mr. Xu from the Inner City, who enjoys collecting. When I arrived, Mr. Xu demanded I give him an explanation. Normally, such matters are difficult to handle. You know the special nature of Ability Users always causes unnecessary trouble…”
“Sometimes, we even need to specifically grant special exceptions or use hidden clauses to resolve these issues.”
“But this particular matter, I handled very easily.”
She paused slightly, emphasizing her words: “Because when Mr. Lone Soldier handled this matter, from beginning to end, there wasn’t a single violation.”
…
Having said all this in one breath, she stopped and looked up at the crowd.
At this moment, everyone’s gaze turned towards Chen Jing, including Minister Shen and Mr. Su.
Meeting so many gazes, Chen Jing straightened up slightly, not letting the pain in her abdomen affect her, her voice calm and steady: “So my opinion is, why can’t we just treat this application report as exactly that—an application?”
…
Chen Jing’s words brought a moment of strange silence to the meeting room.
Many speculations had emerged during the discussion, but the one Chen Jing proposed sounded somewhat absurd.
Such an Ability User, at such a time, submitting such an application…
…Is it really just an application?
Furthermore, regarding the example she gave, shouldn’t someone who does everything completely by the rules be trustworthy?
But why did it instead make the people present feel even more awkward?
Minister Shen was the first to frown, preparing to speak.
“Right, I have one more thing to add.”
Chen Jing spoke again before he could, her voice soft: “If Mr. Lone Soldier forcibly leaves the city, we probably won’t be able to stop him.”
The meeting room fell completely silent.
…
…
Lu Xin, who had been leisurely sitting in the meeting room, basking in the sun, eating candy, and flipping through unfinished training materials on special pollution classification and levels, immediately sat up straight when he saw the satellite phone ring.
It was Chen Jing calling. Lu Xin always knew to maintain basic respect when facing his superiors.
“Hello…”
Chen Jing’s clear and strong voice came through the phone: “I saw your application report. You want to leave the city?”
Lu Xin quickly nodded. “Yes.”
He subconsciously lowered his voice and looked up to see only himself and Gecko in the empty meeting room.
However, hearing him on the phone, Gecko showed no intention of leaving. Or perhaps he didn’t realize Lu Xin was on an important call at all. He was currently leaning against the fourth-floor window, his eyes gleaming as he watched the pedestrians on the street below.
Occasionally, he’d even whistle, followed by sounds like “Hehehe” or “Tsk tsk tsk.”
…
…
Over the phone, Chen Jing’s voice deepened slightly. “I advise you not to go.”
Lu Xin was slightly taken aback. “Why?”
Chen Jing paused for a moment. “The Wasteland holds many dangers and unexpected events. As someone who grew up within a high-wall city, who knows if you can adapt after going out, or what unknown troubles and changes you might encounter.”
“Besides, the Knight Orders you want to pursue are not easy to deal with either.”
The sound of rustling paper came from the other end, seemingly Chen Jing looking at documents. After a moment, her voice returned: “We’ve conducted a preliminary investigation into these Knight Orders. Although we don’t yet know their background, origin, or even the specific number of members, based on the traces they left within the city, we can already tell there are at least three Ability Users among them…”
“The first is the key figure in Special Pollution Incident 041, Qin Ran.”
“This person’s specific ability is unknown, but it’s suspected they possess abilities similar to clones or even rebirth.”
“The second is that Puppet-type ability user. Previously, he manipulated mentally modified people to ambush our investigation convoy… Although you saved me then, I think you are well aware of how dangerous that situation was.”
“Additionally, there’s the instigator of Special Pollution Incident 093, which affected the entire Second Satellite City this time. It’s not yet confirmed whether he achieved this effect using some kind of Pollution Source or through developmental use of his own ability. But his ability to cause such chaos already proves his strength. This person’s Psychic Power level must be much higher than that of ordinary Ability Users.”
…
After saying so much in one breath, Chen Jing lowered her voice: “You were recruited by me not long ago, haven’t even completed basic training, and until now, have only dealt with a few special pollution incidents. You have no experience fighting other Ability Users, so…”
“…going out to pursue them will be extremely dangerous!”
…
Lu Xin listened quietly to Chen Jing’s words, sensing the quietness on her end.
After thinking for a moment, he said thoughtfully, “I indeed don’t have experience fighting other Ability Users.”
Faintly, Chen Jing seemed to let out a sigh of relief.
Then Lu Xin said, “But they probably don’t have experience dealing with me either.”
Chen Jing’s expression seemed to tighten.
After a moment, Lu Xin heard her slowly say, “Tell me the real reason you want to go out and pursue them.”
“This…”
Lu Xin fell silent for a moment, then said, “Didn’t you say it before? Whoever does wrong must pay the price…”
…
At this moment, in the Main City’s Special Cleaning Department meeting room, a table full of people stared at the phone Chen Jing had placed on the table.
The phone was on speaker, and Lu Xin’s somewhat earnest voice came out.
This sentence made everyone in the room look at each other, feeling that what he said was particularly reasonable and logical.
But precisely because it was too logical, it made everyone feel somewhat awkward.
Gradually, the atmosphere suddenly became a bit strange.
Facing the satellite phone, Chen Jing fell silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, “Did you hear about the bounty?”
Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!
Instantly, countless gazes in the meeting room shot towards Chen Jing.
We’re talking about such an important topic, why are you suddenly bringing up something as trivial as the bounty?
…
After Chen Jing asked this question, Lu Xin’s voice took a moment to respond, clearly somewhat flustered: “No, really not. I just feel… they came into the city like that, killed so many people, what they did was truly excessive…”
“So I want to go out and capture them, make them pay the price for what they did in the Satellite City…”
“The bounty and all that…”
He paused, then added in a small voice, “Isn’t that something to talk about later?”
…
The voice coming from the phone was somewhat altered.
But one could still hear the change and nervousness in Lu Xin’s voice and guess his expression at that moment.
Thus, everyone in the meeting room looked at each other with peculiar expressions.
Chen Jing, however, seemed relieved, as if a huge weight had been lifted. She looked up towards Mr. Su, who sat in the center.
A thoughtful smile appeared on Mr. Su’s face.
He looked at Chen Jing and nodded.
Chen Jing’s expression relaxed now too. She spoke into the phone, “I can approve this application…”