Book 3, Chapter 373: Promotion

The purity faction was a mystery to Chen Chuan. Xiaoxing had never given him a thorough explanation. On the surface, it just looked like a faction that was formed after some people merged certain beliefs together in the new era.

But based on the booklet He Xiaoxing had given him, Chen Chuan guessed that it wasn’t the case. It had a proper legacy.

After all, the faction had its own techniques and secrets. Such things couldn’t be passed down by members that weren’t united as one.

Once Chen Chuan considered all factors, he came to the conclusion that the governments and companies acknowledged the various factions.

The purity faction should have been allowed to remain because it was strong and had some faction members that were high-end martial artists. This was the only thing that could make the governments and companies give certain concessions.

Then, Chen Chuan remembered the booklet from Wen Tong. He had said that there’s no threshold to cross from the First to the Third Limit. Any martial artist with talent and enough resources could reach the Third Limit, but it wouldn’t be so easy going further. There was a barrier standing between them and the path ahead.

That barrier might be pure essence.

Wen Tong had told Chen Chuan not to be in a hurry to read the booklet. Once he figured out what path he wanted to take, he could read it.

Chen Chuan could take a look at it now.

After he left Majestic Light District, he went back to Martial Valor District. When he was back in his room, he opened his closet and took out the booklet Wen Tong had given him from his luggage bag.

He sat down in his living room and opened it. The booklet was written with a brush and contained some general descriptions of mental energy.

It would be useful for those who hadn’t started practicing mental energy, but for those who had, it was useless. However, Chen Chuan knew that it was just a hint.

He adjusted his breathing and shut his eyes to use his mind to sense what might be hidden in the pages and immediately discovered something.

The mental information gathered in the words due to some material rose to the surface, and he received it.

After reading through it, Chen Chuan opened his eyes and looked down. Wen Tong shouldn’t have been the one who left the information in the booklet. Some predecessor of the purity faction should have done it, because it looked quite old.

Yet despite it being written such a long time ago, Chen Chuan could clearly sense a wisp of mental energy from the words. This predecessor was no ordinary person. It could even be said that they were boasting by doing this.

Nothing too complicated was hidden in the mental energy. The person only said that if he ran into an obstacle and didn’t want to take the path certain forces of power laid out for him, the purity faction could provide him with a choice.

Chen Chuan shut the booklet and decided to look for Wen Tong.

But he wasn’t in a hurry to do that.

He picked up the warm drink from his table and took a sip as he stared at the clear blue sky outside.

Tomorrow, he would be officially promoted.

After resting in his room for a day, he changed into his uniform and left while feeling full of spirit. At 9 a.m., he arrived at the Resolution Department and greeted his superiors and colleagues before two groups of soldiers escorted him to the hall.

Standing inside it were Wei Huan, the current director of the Resolution Department, Wu Quan, the deputy director in charge of daily operations, Fang Ju, the deputy director in charge of defending the World Ring, Guo You, the deputy director in charge of logistics and tech support, and Luo Xiucheng, the deputy director in charge of internal inspections, who seldom showed his face.

Many other high-ranking Resolution Department officers had also arrived and were standing around the hall.

Ni Qianqian, Officer Qiu, Captain Li, and the others were among them. As for the normal officers, like the sponsored Martial Valor University students, they weren’t qualified to be present.

Chen Chuan walked to the front under everyone’s gaze. Wei Huan brought out a black promotion letter with gold borders and started reciting it after opening it.

“Upon internal deliberation and approval from higher authorities, the following appointment is hereby announced.

“Squad Captain Chen Chuan has been resolute and fearless and rendered distinguished service on numerous occasions ever since joining the Resolution Department. Now approved by the Jibei Road government, Chen Chuan will be promoted to the position of lead investigator of the Resolution Department. He will be in charge of mobilizing the officers and ensuring the safety of the city. He is hereby instructed to exert his utmost to fulfill his duties for the sake of the country’s safety and the happiness of the people.

“This order shall take effect immediately upon issuance.

“Second of June, the 95th year of the Development and Order Era of the Great Shun Republic.”

Wei Huan looked up and smiled before handing the promotion letter to Chen Chuan. Then, he saluted Chen Chuan and said, "Congratulations, Lead Investigator Chen.”

“Thank you, Director Wei.” Chen Chuan took the letter, returned the salute, and shook his hand.

Everyone started clapping.

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Chen Chuan shook the other deputy directors’ hands before turning around. His friends and people he wasn’t close with started coming forward to shake his hand and congratulate him. Some called him Lead Investigator Chen, while others called him Chief Chen straightaway.

While they could indeed call him by the second title, Chen Chuan had no way of knowing whether they were trying to curry favor with him or were just trying to get closer to him. After all, there were some who harbored good-will toward him in the department, but there were also some who didn’t accept him and were jealous of him.

But he didn’t care about that, because he was strong enough to deserve his position.

After a round of pleasantries, Guo You came over. He was a fair and plump middle-aged man resembling leavened dough, but his gold-rimmed glasses made him look more polite.

“Please come with me, Lead Investigator Chen. I need to tell you some things regarding safety and tech,” he said politely.

After giving everyone around a heads-up that he was leaving, Chen Chuan followed Guo You out of the hall.

While smiling, Guo You said, “Now that you’ve become the lead investigator, you’ll have your own office in the Resolution Department. You’ll be given your office key, uniform, sword, gun, and other things later.

“If you find the furnishings or the defenses of your office unsatisfactory, you can tell me. I’ll have them modified according to your requests.”

“Thank you in advance, Director Guo,” Chen Chuan said.

“You’re welcome,” Guo You said.

As they spoke, they entered the elevator and went down. At basement level five, the doors opened, and they walked out into a spacious place.

In the middle of it was an octagonal room made of metal. There was a hole in the wall before them, and there was something flashing inside.

The door had the emblem of a shield.

“Safe Shield is in there. That’s our active biosentient entity. It’s not meant for fighting, but for defense, investigations, and performing logical analysis. When you fought against Ferris Wheel’s active biosentient entity, Safe Shield was the one who first discovered the existence from the other side.”

Just then, they heard the voice of a middle-aged man. It was deep and steady, and gave a sense of safety.

“Good day, Lead Investigator Chen. I’m Safe Shield, and I’m pleased to be of service.”

Guo You went to the side and took out a box, which he handed to Chen Chuan. “Now that you’re a lead investigator, you have the right to use Safe Shield. Please put this on to complete the procedure.”

Chen Chuan opened the box and found a special Realm Pass. Once he put it on, he followed the instructions and keyed in a password only he was privy to. He then performed an additional safety feature and verified his biofield lock.

From that moment on, Safe Shield would protect his Realm Pass. While he was in Central City, he would no longer need to worry about any resonator hacking his Realm Pass. Also, as long as he didn’t turn off his Realm Pass, no matter where he was, he could communicate with Safe Shield and maintain communications with the department.

Safe Shield could even tell him secrets only the Resolution Department knew and show the basic information and implants of those ranked below him.

Guo You smiled. “For your safety, we will assign you a personal motorcade. You’ll have three four-man units, so a total of twelve people. They will take shifts to protect you at all times and listen to your orders. We will also assign two resonators to you.

“At times, such a team might not be enough to protect you. If there’s a need, you can recruit more members.

“We’ll give you two resonators and twelve guards. That’s a total of fourteen. If you hire more, we will pay half of their fees, and they will automatically gain temporary officer status in the Resolution Department.

“We will pay you a total of 100,000 devs as your monthly operating expenses.

“You just need to give us a report to tell us how you used it every month.

“By the way, we’ve also purchased the Class A Defense Agreement from City Defense for you, along with Class Two service from Concurrent Emergency Care. As long as you work with us, we will pay for these services for you every year.”

The municipal government controlled the Class A defense service from City Defense. As for Concurrent Emergency Care, it was formed by several pharmaceutical companies. After asking Guo You some questions, Chen Chuan learned that the Department of Administrative Affairs bought all the departments under it such a service. Even if Chen Chuan didn’t need it, it was included in the department’s expenditures.

He lamented at this. The difference between the benefits of regular officers and the higher-ups were like night and day. If he got promoted even higher, that rift was probably going to widen even more.

Then, through Safe Shield and Guo You, he learned about his duties.

There were two types of lead investigators. One of them was in charge of the administrative affairs of their assigned region. They usually managed and did administrative work or represented the department in communications with the other departments and subordinates. They weren’t frontliners.

The other type was action-type lead investigators like Chen Chuan. He didn’t need to show up for regular missions, but only when things escalated to a certain degree.

Theoretically, he could even get a few squad captains to work with him, but that was only what they said. Lead investigators were mainly in charge of defending against and investigating the companies in Central City. At times, they also needed to fight against the armed forces from those companies.

“The higher-ups have approved giving you three months’ leave. Once you come back after your break, we’ll give you your assignment,” Guo You said.

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