Book 4, Chapter 56: Covert Action

Chen Chuan stared at the map on the screen. Even though Safe Shield supported his analysis and gave him a general outline of where United Might might be hiding this possible team, it wouldn’t be easy to find them.

After all, these areas were large, and most of them were in the spaces between districts. Many of them didn’t have domain entities and were the gathering places for non-citizens. Criminals filled these places. Without sufficient manpower, he wouldn’t be able to conduct a proper investigation.

Safe Shield would only be able to find suspicious targets if it used all its resources to help him and keep an eye over these places 24/7.

But that was impossible. The rest of the Resolution Department had to communicate with each other, analyze situations, inspect domains, research strategies, coordinate manpower, distribute weapons, and do other things. All these things required Safe Shield’s support. As a lead investigator, Chen Chuan could use a lot of resources, but it was still limited. He could only apply for more in an emergency.

United Might was clearly not on that level yet.

Hence, he would need another method to find these people.

Under normal circumstances, he could ask the Resolution Department to contact City Patrol to join him for an investigation, but this was inefficient and would cause too much of a ruckus. If they took too much time, Chen Chuan could forget about ever finding United Might’s group.

After all, City Patrol had other tasks too. Some of them were emergencies and ad hoc tasks. Sometimes, operations requiring more priority would be sent to them as well. Even now, City Patrol had a ton of operations that were still waiting for them to complete.

Hence, this was not possible. Fortunately, there was another path—hiring agent companies and agents.

This was very convenient. As long as clients with a good reputation paid enough money, agents and agent companies would complete their requests. With them, Chen Chuan wouldn’t need to waste manpower or resources. He also wouldn’t be responsible for the situations they got into while carrying out the mission.

He decided to give it a try.

After all, this was the only method that could work before his team was completely formed.

Chen Chuan asked Safe Shield to give him a list of agents that suited his requirements from the Resolution Department’s records, and multiple people’s photos and videos appeared on his screen.

Searching for agents and agent companies wasn’t an easy task, because there was a tangled web of connections behind them. It was all really complicated.

But while other people needed to repeatedly weigh the pros and cons and consider things carefully, Chen Chuan didn’t. The Resolution Department was a tough combat force. Regardless of what sort of background an agent or agent company had, they had to learn how to communicate with the Resolution Department, so Chen Chuan didn’t need to go along with their rules.

After checking through the entire list, Chen Chuan’s gaze landed on a bald man’s picture. He had a clear embedded line of an implant on his head, and his beard was done in several neat braids. He had full lips, a long nose, a firm, well-proportioned mouth, wide shoulders, strong body, and was in his forties. His name was Huang Weiyi.

This agent was once an executive of a well-known agent company. Later on, he decided to set up his own company, but he was a man of morals and seldom misappropriated the client’s money. When he failed his missions, he would bear the cost himself, so he had a pretty good reputation.

Agents operated in legal gray areas, though. None of them were truly squeaky clean. However, that wasn’t part of Chen Chuan’s jurisdiction. After checking the man’s credibility class and the list of missions he took before, Chen Chuan decided to hire him and asked Safe Shield to contact him.

The man’s profile picture was a fat gecko stuck on a wall. After a while, the call went through, and Chen Chuan saw Huang Weiyi’s signature bald head.

“Huang Weiyi. How may I help you?”

“I’m Chen Chuan,” he introduced himself.

Since Huang Weiyi was an agent, he knew who Chen Chuan was and grinned. “The moment I saw the signal, I knew that some important person was calling me. I wasn’t expecting it to be you, Lead Investigator Chen. Feel free to tell me what you need.”

Chen Chuan sent his requirements. “Mr. Huang, I’d like to check these districts and find all suspicious people in them. Would you be up for doing that?”

“Since you asked, of course! I’ll get it done for you even if I die for it!”

Huang Weiyi knew that no lead investigator from the Resolution Department would come to him for normal stuff, so after just a quick glance, he figured out that this might be related to the conflict between the government and some big company.

While he was an important person among mercenary groups and independent agents, he couldn’t afford to offend the government or companies. If he were careless, he was going to end up crushed to bits.

Hence, his entire back got covered in cold sweat.

But he didn’t dare to refuse, because a lead investigator had sought him out. How could he show disrespect by saying no? Besides, while this was dangerous, it was also a chance for him. If he managed to do this well, he might be able to get acquainted with someone high up.

After all, Chen Chuan was a lead investigator in charge of operations in the Resolution Department. If Huang Weiyi could form a stable partnership with him, then even if Chen Chuan just gave him something minor to do, it could help Huang Weiyi expand his business severalfold. There were also all sorts of other hidden benefits.

“Since you’re willing to take it up, I’ll let you handle it. But remember to never cross any moral lines. Give me a quotation later,” Chen Chuan said.

“You’re too kind, Lead Investigator Chen. This is just our first deal with each other. I won’t be taking your money,” Huang Weiyi quickly said.

“No need. We’ll go according to protocol,” Chen Chuan rejected his offer. If he didn’t pay Huang Weiyi, how could the man possibly work for him? That was not how things worked in this world.

Huang Weiyi smiled. “You’re very particular about this. Do you have any other requests?”

“Get the information as soon as possible and make sure not to leak anything about what you’re doing,” Chen Chuan instructed.

“Alright. Don’t worry. I’ll remember what you said, and I’ll definitely get this done perfectly!”

“Okay. It's settled.”

***

Once the conversation ended, Huang Weiyi took out a handkerchief and wiped off his sweat before contacting someone. The call only went through after a long while. A lazy, annoyed voice came through. “What is it, Boss? I just went to bed, you know?”

“Stop sleeping and get up already! If you can’t, take some stimulants to freshen up! I’m telling you, we have a major gig! If we get this done right, we can earn big money from this client from now on!”

***

Chen Chuan had another problem—once he found those people, he had to quickly kill them all. Safe Shield suggested he get a squad captain to help him, which was a good idea.

The key word was that it was a suggestion.

Squad captains were supposed to only be mobilized by the directors and the World Ring Defense System during emergency situations. They weren’t supposed to be used for regular operations.

When Chen Chuan was a squad captain, he didn’t have to show up unless it was a really special operation. Wu Quan was his liaison for this.

If a lead investigator wanted to mobilize a squad captain, they needed to apply for it and might still not get a suitable person that fitted his purposes.

It would be better to bring one’s own personnel or find a squad captain willing to work together of his own accord.

However, the second option made it far too easy for Chen Chuan to owe the person a favor. Hence, he decided to do it himself. In any case, it wasn’t going to take him much time. If the United Might’s team was strong, they could become a reference for his Heartborn Force’s development and make his second self stronger, so it would be a welcome thing.

He then checked the other messages. After all, the Resolution Department had also asked him to keep an eye out for GreenSource Eco-Tech aside from United Might.

This company kept a low profile, and the forces they kept hidden in Central City were even stronger than those of United Might. Chen Chuan wouldn’t be able to take both companies down at the same time with his current manpower, so he could only place his attention on one of them at a time. He would just watch GreenSource Eco-Tech for now.

While thinking about it, he received a call. “Advisor Pei?”

“Lead Investigator Chen, I’ve approved your application. I’ll send the official documents to you later, but please make use of it carefully,” Advisor Pei said.

Chen Chuan heard a chime. After taking a look, he found that he had received a proof of authorization with the World Ring Defense System’s seal at the bottom. “Thank you, Advisor Pei, but I might be unable to do this for the time being.”

“I know that you have a lot going on. We’re currently keeping an eye out on this. The Covert Division is also investigating this in secret. If there are any clues, I’ll tell you right away. Also, Special Officer Liang has approved your request for your team’s transfer. They should arrive in two days,” Advisor Pei said.

“Thank you. Please thank Special Officer Liang for me as well,” Chen Chuan said gratefully.

Recently, he had received information from within the Resolution Department that there was a lot of commotion in the merged space, and every department was sending people there. It had to have been hard to send three Third Limit martial artists back to Central City at this point in time. Chen Chuan’s request could only have been approved because of Liang Guanghai.

Chen Chuan really needed manpower on his side, or he wouldn’t be able to kickstart many things.

“You don’t have to thank me, Lead Investigator Chen. We have the same goal. That’s all. We’ll talk again,” Advisor Pei said goodbye.

“Okay. Talk to you later.” Chen Chuan nodded and ended the call.

For now, he didn’t have anything else to do, so he turned off the screen and went upstairs to train. After only an hour or so, he received a message from Lu Fang.

Usually, Lu Fang only contacted him when he was in trouble. Realizing that something had happened, he immediately contacted his senior. “Did something happen, Lu Fang?”

“Someone has been watching the martial arts school, and it has been going on for days,” Lu Fang replied in a stern voice. “I’ve been paying attention to it, and I think that they’re watching Xiaojin. Something’s wrong, so I decided to call you. I also asked Xiaojin not to come today.”

Chen Chuan was quite surprised. He thought of many things, but for the time being, he couldn’t make heads or tails of it. “I understand. If anything else happens, please tell me immediately.”

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