"Big Dragon, where are the things you found on him and from his residence?"
Cheng Ye withdrew his gaze from Wang Qing and turned to look at Big Dragon beside him.
"They're all stored away. I'll go get them right now!" Big Dragon didn't dare delay, turning around and quickly walking to the storage room. Within half a minute, he returned carrying a transparent plastic bag.
The bag had Wang Qing's name written on it with a black marker, along with the time when the items were found.
Cheng Ye opened the plastic bag. The contents were simple.
A guard pistol that everyone in the buffer zone had, scattered Happiness Coins totaling 246 coins, and a Happiness City resident badge used to disguise his identity.
He took out his defense communicator to verify the resident badge. The screen immediately displayed identity information, with a photo showing a face that was seventy percent similar to Wang Qing's.
It seemed that if the duty inspector at the time hadn't conducted a thorough check, letting him pass would have been normal.
However, the silver Pinghai Tower badge he had seen in the intelligence space was nowhere to be found.
Was it hidden in the wasteland outside and he didn't dare bring it in?
Or was it...
"Did you only find these things from his residence? Nothing else?"
"There were also some torn clothes, a canvas backpack, and common supplies. I verified everything and found no anomalies." Big Dragon nodded. Seeing Cheng Ye's slightly furrowed brow, he added, "Should I bring the backpack over for you to take another look?"
"Bring it over."
Soon, a canvas backpack worn white was handed to Cheng Ye.
He pulled open the zipper. The contents inside were quite orderly:
Two patched jackets and pants, several pairs of socks, a small bundle of rope, a simple water filter, a box of bullets, and six packages of expired nutrition paste.
Cheng Ye dumped the items one by one onto the table, examining them thoroughly.
There was nothing hidden in the seams of the clothes, the water filter contained only ordinary filter cores when disassembled, and the rope was nothing special.
His gaze finally settled on the six packages of nutrition paste.
After nutrition paste expires, the liquid inside gradually becomes thick like paste, and the interior hardens.
However, observing under the overhead light, Cheng Ye keenly noticed that the liquid in one package was slightly less thick than the other five.
Taking out the flashlight from the backpack, he let the light beam shine through the nutrition paste packaging.
Cheng Ye's lips immediately curved into a slight smile. In the thick, pale yellow liquid, he could vaguely see the shadow of a small object tightly wrapped inside.
"Go tear open the packaging, be careful not to get the liquid inside on you, then wash that thing clean and bring it over." Cheng Ye handed the nutrition paste to Big Dragon, specifically giving this instruction.
"Yes!"
Big Dragon took the nutrition paste and, learning from Cheng Ye, held it up to the light to look inside. He was immediately bewildered.
Elder He had led people in interrogating for three days, even using various tortures, but couldn't get half a word out of Wang Qing's mouth.
Inspector Cheng had just started, and there was already a breakthrough?
He didn't dare delay, immediately taking people to the toilet to extract the item. Sure enough, there was a badge hidden inside.
The surface was covered with sticky nutrition paste, but the exquisite patterns were still visible.
After washing the badge clean with water and drying it with paper towels, Big Dragon put on gloves and brought it back reverently.
Cheng Ye also found a pair of examination rubber gloves from the backpack, put them on, and pinched the edge of the badge with his fingertips, bringing it close to his eyes for careful examination.
The badge was only the size of a bottle cap, cool to the touch, but surprisingly light, feeling like pinching a leaf.
He hadn't expected that Pinghai Tower, this violent platform, would actually have a bit of "literary flair."
The front was engraved with two lines of poetry in extremely small intaglio characters: "What I love is separated by mountains and seas, but mountains and seas can all be leveled."
The reverse side featured a relief pattern of ocean waves. Among the rolling waves, there was a small sun carved in the upper right corner, a crescent moon in the upper left corner, and at the very bottom center, there was a line of verification code-like numbers:
[02W76]
Cheng Ye walked to Wang Qing with the badge, gently shook it, and suddenly spoke, imitating the tone of Wang Qing and the bartender from the intelligence, "Please give me an orange sunlight."
But Wang Qing just sat there blankly, a foolish smile hanging at the corners of his mouth, his eyes vacant, with no reaction at all.
It seemed that after the "Calamity Heart Worm" fully erupted, he truly only had mechanical repetitive instincts left, with all autonomous consciousness completely destroyed.
"Unless we can find a matching infection source, but that difficulty is no less than annihilating Shanhai Tower."
Cheng Ye shook his head lightly, already having made a decision in his heart.
After he finished questioning and couldn't get any more information, and after searching for all valuable skills and intelligence, he definitely couldn't keep the person detained in the community forever. Eventually, they would still have to be handed over to the inspection station.
Without any surprises, these four people would definitely be taken by the inspection station for craniotomy.
He wondered if the 99% mortality rate would allow even one lucky person to survive.
"What about the belongings of the other people? Bring them over for me to see as well."
Big Dragon successively brought over the property bags of the other three people, along with miscellaneous items. The contents of the property bags were identical:
Each person had a gun, a small amount of Happiness Coins, plus a resident badge but when searching through the remaining miscellaneous items, Cheng Ye quickly found the other three Pinghai Tower badges.
One had been ground into the shape of a clothing button and sewn onto the belt of work pants, one was hidden in the shoe sole interlayer, and another was stuffed in the insulation layer of a water bottle, impossible to discover without disassembly.
"Sir, this..." Big Dragon looked at the three bronze badges in Cheng Ye's hands, completely dumbfounded.
"It's fine. You're not professionals, so it's normal that you couldn't discover them."
Cheng Ye chuckled. Having these four badges made it even more certain that the four were Pinghai Tower mercenaries.
However, unlike Wang Qing's badge, the remaining three people's badges were all bronze-colored. The reverse sides also had ocean waves, sun and moon patterns carved on them, along with a string of verification codes.
Bronze-level mercenaries?
Cheng Ye speculated in his mind, "These badges must have other uses besides proving identity, otherwise they wouldn't have hidden them so carefully."
After observing for a while, he couldn't figure out the trick.
But it wasn't a big problem. He took out his Xinghuo communicator, opened the verification function, and immediately got the answer after taking a photo.
[Pinghai Tower Badge (Silver Level)]
[Function]: Proves Pinghai Tower mercenary identity; stores mission points (equivalent to currency)
[Usage]:
1. Accept missions: Badge number serves as mercenary code name, requires independent password verification to accept corresponding level missions
2. Point storage: After completing missions, reward points are directly stored in the badge, cannot be withdrawn, can only circulate internally
3. Black market consumption: Through Pinghai Tower's special communicator sensing the badge, after entering password, points can be used to purchase weapons, intelligence, supplies, etc.
[Note]: Badge only binds to code name, not to individuals. If lost, cannot be reissued, points will be permanently frozen
[Note]: Supply Department recovers this badge, recovery price: Silver level/80/Xinghuo points
"Oh, so it's Pinghai Tower's exclusive bank card!"
Cheng Ye suddenly understood. No wonder the four people would rather hide the badges in nutrition paste and shoe soles than carry them with them.
Other things could be replaced if lost, but if this badge was lost, all the hard-earned mission points would be gone, and Pinghai Tower wouldn't provide replacements.
As for being picked up by others, without the independent password, it couldn't be used anyway, providing double insurance.
However, seeing the last "recovery information," he had another thought. Could Xinghuo Sanctuary City crack the password? Or could they forcibly extract the points inside after recovery?
"For me, it's simple. Just capture them one by one and search, and I can get all the passwords."
"Hey, giving both skills and mission points, this Pinghai Tower is really a charitable organization."
Cheng Ye put away the Xinghuo communicator, unable to help but smile.
Although he didn't know whether the usage range of Pinghai Tower's special communicator covered the Happiness City area, if he accumulated enough badges, he could always find places where they could be used.
Since it was a black market platform, he might be able to buy things that couldn't be bought in Happiness City, such as good items from other super sanctuary cities, or some important special intelligence.
Thinking this way, Cheng Ye suddenly felt that the mastermind behind the bounty on him had instead become a "good person sending benefits."
With Fire Sprout's ability to sense gazes, plus the cooperation of community militia, catching these mercenaries was as easy as taking candy from a baby.
"These foolish kids who accepted the mission probably never knew until their death that the 'trainee inspector' they were investigating was actually a transcendent, right?"
Cheng Ye couldn't help but laugh out loud, even having an even bolder idea.
If the bounty was withdrawn in the future, could he post his own bounty on Pinghai Tower to continue fishing for law enforcement? As long as those who came weren't transcendents, wouldn't capturing them be a piece of cake?
Not bad, the wasteland world outside was truly full of endless opportunities!
"Big Dragon, take them back. Give each person two packages of nutrition paste, don't let them starve to death."
Putting all four badges into a waterproof bag, Cheng Ye glanced at the charging value in the upper right corner of the panel, which was only 6% remaining. He wasn't in a hurry since the people couldn't escape.
"Yes!" Big Dragon immediately responded, his eyes full of curiosity, but he didn't dare ask more questions.
"Oh, there's one more thing." Cheng Ye called back Big Dragon, who was about to turn around. "I'm bringing back six vehicles tonight, and they'll all be parked in the community from now on. Arrange for people to clear a space, put them in that closed alley behind the mall. First clean out the clutter inside, then assign two people to watch them 24 hours a day, don't let anyone touch them carelessly."
"Alright! I'll arrange it right away!" Big Dragon was about to leave when Cheng Ye called him again.
"Wait."
Cheng Ye looked at him, slowly nodding, his tone carrying a hint of ambiguous meaning, "Aren't you curious about what I'm going to use these six vehicles for?"
Big Dragon scratched his head, showing that simple expression Cheng Ye was all too familiar with, his tone honest, "If you want me to know, you'll naturally tell me. If you don't say, Big Dragon will never speak out of turn."
This submissive appearance was completely different from the "Poison Hand Dragon" that others described as ruthless and feared by all.
"That's good."
Cheng Ye waved his hand, his tone casual, "I'll tell you when it's time for you to know, but some things, if I tell you too early, it's not good for you or for the other people in the community."
Big Dragon's heart immediately tensed, instantly understanding the implied meaning behind Cheng Ye's words.
After he hurriedly walked out of the interrogation room and reached back to touch his back, he realized that at some point it had become covered with a dense layer of cold sweat but after just two steps, those lingering feelings of alarm gradually transformed into thick joy.
The dead soldier that Elder He couldn't interrogate had no secrets at all in front of Inspector Cheng.
Wasn't this also a demonstration of capability?
Thinking about these past days following Cheng Ye in training, catching people, and interrogating, watching the community change day by day, the pedestrian street foundation rising from the ground, the mall being gradually repaired and perfected, and even the women in the community having places to work and earn money.
Big Dragon quickly found Second Dragon, "The brothers watching the detention room and those who caught people, go find them one by one later and arrange it properly. Tell them to keep everything they saw and heard buried in their stomachs."
"I don't want to hear any brother discussing the boss, even if the city lord comes asking, they can't say anything. Understand?"
"Alright, I'll go handle it right away." Second Dragon hurriedly ran off, the expression on his face showing even more urgency than Big Dragon's.
8:30 PM.
The iron gate of the Mechanical Department's station slowly opened, and six military green vehicles drove out in sequence.
Cheng Ye drove the off-road vehicle at the front. In the rearview mirror, three transport vehicles and two armed pickups followed closely, their headlights creating long streaks of light in the night.
This feeling of commanding a vehicle convoy was strange yet wonderful, making him involuntarily think of the embarrassing period a month ago when he couldn't even afford a Buffalo pistol. It felt like a lifetime ago.
The convoy drove smoothly into the city district, finally turning into the closed alley behind Tianyuan Mall.
Big Dragon had already led people to clean the entire alley spotlessly, and the ground had been mopped thoroughly.
There was even a simple iron frame set up at the entrance, with two militia guards standing at the door, and two people arranged inside the alley for 24-hour watch duty.
The apprentices from the Mechanical Department jumped out of the vehicles, skillfully pulling the handbrakes, their faces showing somewhat flattering smiles: "Inspector Cheng, all the vehicles are parked. If you need any assembly or repair work in the future, just call us anytime. We're at your service!"
"Good." Cheng Ye nodded in agreement, but found it somewhat amusing.
No wonder the Mechanical Department couldn't retain people. These apprentices were already looking for backup plans for themselves before they had even finished their training.
But it was fine. When the merchant convoy needed vehicle maintenance in the future, or even when a repair shop needed to be built, he could directly requisition these people, saving the trouble of finding familiar apprentice workers elsewhere.
After the apprentices left, Cheng Ye turned the vehicle around and drove toward the Works Department station.
He now had six charging cards in his hands, three linked to the inspection station's public account, and three were private individual cards.
As long as he distributed the charging amounts across each card, charging moderately each time and reducing the frequency, it wouldn't attract attention.
The guard at the Works Department parking lot already recognized Cheng Ye. Seeing him arrive with a new vehicle, he was momentarily stunned, then smiled and opened the gate, "Inspector Cheng, why are you here today?"
"To charge the battery." Cheng Ye replied simply.
"Great! There are still many empty spots in the charging area today!" The guard quickly stepped aside.
The first time he could charge openly without needing excuses, this feeling was truly comfortable.
The bus charging area at the Works Department was exceptionally spacious. Cheng Ye, somewhat unfamiliarly, turned the steering wheel and reversed until the off-road vehicle was steadily parked in front of the charging pile.
Then he casually picked up a white card and attached it to the back of his defense communicator to complete the binding.
Individual cards had a minimum charge of 1000 kilowatt-hours per session. After confirmation, the screen immediately displayed a prompt:
[150 contribution points deducted, charging quota credited]
"Good thing I didn't spend the contribution points I saved earlier carelessly. Now it's really being spent on the cutting edge!"
Cheng Ye looked at his defense communicator balance, which still had 2017 points. Using it all for charging could get over ten thousand kilowatt-hours.
Completely sufficient!
He wasn't in a hurry to plug in the charging gun, first manually adjusting the charging limit on the panel to 37.5%.
This way, the maximum charging amount displayed by the charging pile would be 150 kilowatt-hours, exactly corresponding to the off-road vehicle's battery capacity, without any faults to pick.
"Better safe than sorry. It's just a matter of making two more trips, no big deal."
Cheng Ye muttered to himself.
Now that someone had hired Pinghai Tower mercenaries to investigate him, any anomaly could become a breakthrough point. He had to be extremely cautious.
After the charging limit was full, he drove the off-road vehicle back and then came over with a transport vehicle to charge.
This time he directly set the limit to 50%. After two charges, the energy value had recovered to 90.5%.
Looking at the time on his defense communicator, the back-and-forth charging had only taken 3 hours.
"This efficiency is really much faster than household electricity."
Cheng Ye couldn't help but sigh.
If he had relied on his home's civilian electricity to charge this much, it would have taken at least six days. Now that he could use the Works Department's fast charging, he finally didn't have to worry about energy values anymore.
The early period of lying low and accumulating was finally time to reap the rewards.
He didn't linger, immediately driving the vehicle back to the community and proceeding without stopping to interrogate Wang Qing again.
With sufficient energy value, it was the perfect time to search for more intelligence.
"Intelligence search, direction: details of Pinghai Tower mission coordination related to me."
As the thought settled, the surrounding environment instantly darkened, and Wang Qing's vacant expression froze on his face.
The next second, the vision shattered and reorganized. This time the scene was clearer and more in-depth.
It was no longer the vacation-style small island full of colorful bungalows from before, but a completely barren wild island.
A light rain was falling from the sky, and the sea breeze carried a salty fishy smell as it hit the exposed rocks.
There were no decent buildings on the island, only a few temporary shacks made of canvas and wooden boards. Iron wire fencing was strung around the shacks with "No Approach" warning signs hanging on them, but they were rusty and clearly hadn't been maintained for a long time.
Cheng Ye observed the surroundings from a god's-eye view. The wild island wasn't large. In the center was a flat open space with a rusty iron frame holding an old-style communicator, its antenna pointing crookedly toward the sky.
Wang Qing in the scene wore a black raincoat, walking unsteadily toward the iron frame. He took out the silver badge from his pocket and pressed it against the communicator's sensing area.
"Beep, please enter verification password!"
The communicator had a numeric keypad. Wang Qing cautiously looked around, then reached out to enter the password.
"Hey, I can see the password already?"
Cheng Ye was somewhat surprised. He had originally thought he would need to waste another opportunity to search for the password.
He hadn't expected it to be so convenient.
Wang Qing quickly entered a twelve-digit random password. Cheng Ye wasn't in a hurry to memorize it since he could replay the intelligence later when needed.
"Beep, verification passed, code name 02W76, silver-level mercenary."
The communicator emitted an electronic synthesized voice with electrical static, "Please enter mission coordination password."
Wang Qing paused, then pressed another string of numbers on the communicator.
"Password correct, 'Bronze 5' mission confirmed accepted."
The electronic voice continued, "Client requirements: Focus on investigating abnormalities in target's background information, search for connections with Happiness City's missing fifth-term inspector 'Cheng Long', submit progress report weekly, mission deadline 90 days. Accept by pressing 1, repeat by pressing 0."
Wang Qing didn't hesitate, directly pressing the number 1.
The communicator paused, then suddenly a small box popped out from below containing a milky white caterpillar.
Wang Qing's expression changed slightly, but he still took the worm and swallowed it.
The next second, the intelligence space shattered again.
The entire process of mission acceptance without any human contact demonstrated Shanhai Tower's cunning.
Missions were on one island, accepting missions was on another island, and completing missions would probably be in yet another place.
Even if some force wanted to eliminate these pests, they would have to consider whether the investment and returns could match.
"Cheng Long, missing fifth-term inspector?"
Cheng Ye sat in his chair, brow slightly furrowed.
He hadn't expected that another search would yield unexpected gains. Could it be that Cheng Long wasn't dead yet?
Thinking of Liu Bi's previous hesitant manner, Cheng Ye was thoughtful. It seemed the waters here weren't as simple as he had imagined.
Cheng Long had been able to rise from humble beginnings step by step back then, relying not on external forces like collectors.
For such a person to suddenly go intercept the city lord of Happiness City who hadn't appeared for many years.
The elders were all transcendents, and the city lord who could keep these people in line must also be a transcendent.
For an ordinary person to intercept a transcendent, there must be hidden circumstances behind it.
"Could it be that these people think my abnormalities are related to the missing Cheng Long?"
It had to be said, this was a perfect scapegoat excuse.
Cheng Ye thought about it, staring at the remaining 66% energy value, and didn't conduct another intelligence search.
By now, he knew enough. More would be gradually understanding the internal situation of Shanhai Tower.
However, he didn't plan to slowly search for these things using the collector. Asking Master Tian might yield a breakthrough, since the Calamity Heart Worm was developed by his old organization.
Moreover, Shanhai Tower and Pinghai Tower must have some connection between them.
"Big Dragon, bring me a basin of cold water and wake this guy up."
"Yes!" Big Dragon's eyes lit up, and he quickly ran to fetch a bucket of water and poured it over.
Splash.
Wang Qing's somewhat scattered consciousness immediately jolted.
When he opened his eyes, he saw Cheng Ye had already walked over with large strides, his right hand gripping his hand like an eagle's claw.
With a squeeze, severe pain came.
Wang Qing couldn't help but scream miserably, finally no longer repeating that annoying phrase "I just came to take a look."
"Since you're already here, leave all your skills, points, and intelligence behind."
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Cheng Ye focused his mind.
The huge characters "Lv3" flashed in the center of the panel, followed by all the characters beginning to shake and reorganize rapidly. Without much fanfare, a complete skill panel appeared.
[Wang Qing]
[Lv1 Skills]: Locked
[Lv2 Skills]: Locked
[Lv3 Skills]:
Talents: Wave Constitution (Rare, moderately enhances physical endurance)
Talents: Adapt to Circumstances (Rare, body can quickly integrate into unfamiliar regional environments)
Talents: White Strip in Waves (Rare, moderately improves swimming ability)
Talents: Cool White Skin (Excellent, slightly increases skin stratum corneum renewal speed)
Skills: Twelve Common Muscle Points (heel, knee bend, hip bone, lumbar spine...)
Skills: Intermediate Swimming, Intermediate Perception, Advanced Traps, Intermediate Disguise, Fuhai Legion Standard Combat Techniques (Proficient), Fuhai Legion Standard Shooting Techniques (Proficient)
Skills: Advanced Ship Repair☆
[Lv4 Skills]: Locked