"Bro Lu, it’s dawn. Should we head deeper and stroll around the city now?"
Lu Luo looked at the Security Bureau personnel below him and shook his head. "Let’s wait a bit longer."
To be honest, compared to finding work inside Imperial territory right now, Lu Luo was personally more inclined to make contact with the official organizations of the Empire. To understand a country, one must comprehend its market, economy, and political organizations. Official organizations like the Security Bureau could largely provide so of the information Lu Luo sought, such as details about Transcendents. This was because an official security organization would inevitably encounter problems requiring irresistible force. This made it an easily accessible official ard organization, a very good entry point.
"Lu Luo, you want to go over and take a look?"
"Yeah, last night’s events were quite interesting. I’m curious how these Imperial citizens will handle it."
Within the Wall of the Wasteland Alliance, encounters with Exotic Species were rare. Battles between humans and Exotic Species usually happened outside the Wall; the ones Lu Luo had encountered before were due to certain human-caused incidents. Therefore, in the daily lives of humans, contact with Exotic Species was extrely limited. Yet, Lu Luo and his group had just arrived in the Empire and had already discovered Exotic Species hidden among the crowd. These were wild Exotic Species, which were significantly different from man-made entities. The Empire’s permissive stance was certainly intriguing!
"So, what now?"
"Let Kevin take you to familiarize yourselves with the surroundings. Just focus on your disguises. I’ll stay here and observe."
"Go now? What if we’re discovered?"
Lu Luo spread his hands. "The people here are basically identical to us. As long as you try to behave like normal people, how could they possibly discover you? Besides, with Kevin, a local, guiding you, getting familiar with the environnt shouldn’t be difficult, right?"
"Try to behave like a normal person"... What kind of advice is that?! Qi Xinzhu felt sowhat indignant, but after pondering, she realized Lu Luo’s words didn’t seem problematic.
"What about you? Are you going to check out the work at the Security Bureau?"
"Yes, I want to understand the Security Bureau and, by extension, their way of working. If I can get a job connected to official channels, much like the forr Doomsday Halo Hunter Office, then many things moving forward will beco much simpler."
Hearing Lu Luo express his desire for an official identity, Gu Fangyi and Qi Xinzhu imdiately asked with doubt, "Didn’t you say we should familiarize ourselves with the environnt before deciding whether to approach official organizations? Why are you making contact with them now? Won’t it be dangerous?"
"Opportunities like this are fleeting. I believe now is the best chance to make contact with them."
"Alright, then be careful."
"Yes, you too."
After the two groups separated, a light rain began to fall. Lu Luo instinctively wanted to activate the Devourer and absorb energy from the raindrops. But when the rain fell on him, Lu Luo realized the water here contained no energy.
Huh... It’s actually clean water! Just so dust and impurities, truly...
The Observer remarked with a touch of poetic flair, "Shouldn’t rainwater inherently be clean? Having grown accustod to filth, have you lost the ability to comprehend purity?" This prompted Lu Luo to pause and reflect.
"Indeed."
Nearly two years of life in the Doomsday Halo had shifted Lu Luo’s habits more towards that state. Many of his routines were now no different from those of a regular person in the Wasteland Alliance. Looking up at the rain, Lu Luo took an umbrella from his ring and opened it over his head.
The Observer asked, "Why use an umbrella? Isn’t that redundant?"
"Isn’t it normal to use an umbrella when it rains? Shouldn’t all normal people use one?"
"Are you a normal person?" the Observer questioned.
"Am I not?"
The conversation between Lu Luo and the Observer trailed off. He leisurely followed the group of Security Bureau officers. His supre strength kept him unnoticed by them. Only Captain Zhang from the Security Bureau, sticking his head out of the car window, seed to sense sothing amiss.
The detective in the driver’s seat saw his captain stick his head out and imdiately beca alert. "Captain, what’s wrong? Is soone following us?"
The detective was well-trained and knew that Captain Zhang looking back at this ti was unusual.
But Captain Zhang just shook his head. "It’s nothing. I just wanted to look behind us."
"That’s good then!"
Turning back, Captain Zhang started chatting with his subordinate in the driver’s seat. "Xiao Zhou, do you think this case is a homicide?"
"Based on the evidence at the scene, the victim was killed with a sharp weapon. The wounds, the blood spatter, and the murder weapon at the scene—all this evidence suggests the murderer is an ordinary person. If it’s not a homicide..."
Xiao Zhou didn’t continue, but Captain Zhang understood his aning. If it wasn’t a human homicide, then it must have been the work of an anomaly. But if it were an anomaly, there would be no need to go to such lengths. An anomaly wouldn’t need to fabricate evidence or make things so complicated, nor would it need to splatter blood everywhere. Therefore, it was very likely the act was man-made.
Yet, Captain Zhang felt sothing wasn’t quite right, though he couldn’t pinpoint what it was. Lost in thought, Captain Zhang glanced behind him again at the barren area.
Is there really no one back there?
"Yeah, really, there’s no one," Lu Luo, sitting on the car roof, said casually while eating. Of course, the people in the car below couldn’t hear him.
Riding in the car, feeling the strong wind and raindrops, Lu Luo was in a fairly good mood. The umbrella in his hand seed unaffected by the wind; despite their high speed, the ordinary umbrella faithfully perford its duty of shielding him from the rain.
As they progressed, Lu Luo was slightly surprised to find they were getting closer and closer to the place he had been before.
Good grief, we’re heading back again.
When the police car stopped at the research outpost, Wang Zemin, roused by the sound, groggily awoke. He had been drinking all night and now had a splitting headache, unable to recall what had happened.
Why would the Security Bureau be here?
As soon as Wang Zemin opened the door, the detectives at the entrance surged forward.
"Don’t move!"
"Don’t move!"
"Stay still!"
Wang Zemin was just an ordinary university student. Although stationed here, and the school had equipped him with a weapon, this was, after all, an Inland nature reserve, and he rarely thought of using firearms. So, when the detectives burst in, his only reaction was panic.
"Hey, what are you doing? What do you want? I’m a university student from Dong’an! What law have I broken?"
"Are you Mr. Wang Zemin?"
"What is it?"
"You are currently a suspect in a murder case. Please co with us."
"What? Murder? How is that possible? I’ve been staying here for most of the past six months. This is a nature reserve; it’s usually deserted. Where would I go to kill soone? A savage?"
At the ntion of a "savage," Lu Luo, standing on the roof, touched his nose.
Inside, Wang Zemin tried to struggle, but the more he struggled, the more firmly the detectives restrained him.
"Behave!"
Captain Zhang took out a photo of Li Wei and showed it to Wang Zemin. "Li Wei, a third-year student at Dong’an University, your girlfriend. She was found dead in her rented room this morning, in a horrific state. Before she died, she posted online asking for advice because she had deleted her boyfriend’s thesis. Mr. Wang Zemin, did Miss Li Wei delete your thesis?"
Wang Zemin stared at Li Wei’s photo, speechless for a long mont. "Li Wei... she’s dead? How could that be? I knew it, I should have followed her. I was worried sothing might happen to her. But I was so angry, I didn’t go after her. I never expected... It’s all my fault!"
Wang Zemin burst into tears.
However, Captain Zhang remained expressionless. He had probably already guessed Wang Zemin wasn’t the killer. But...
After a slight internal sigh, Captain Zhang stated coldly, "Miss Li Wei deleted your thesis, you argued here, and she stord out. And you, Mr. Wang Zemin, after drinking, beca overwheld by rage. So you chased after her, knowing the location of Miss Li Wei’s rented room. Upon arriving there, you killed her, correct?"
Wang Zemin looked at Captain Zhang in horror and shouted, "I didn’t kill anyone! I’m not the murderer! I wouldn’t even dare kill a chicken, how could I kill a person? Besides, this place is so far from the suburbs. Was I supposed to run there?"
"There’s fresh mud on the tires of the bicycle by the door. This indicates you rode that bicycle yesterday. Riding a bicycle to the rented apartnt, while tiring, wouldn’t be impossible, would it?"
"I didn’t! I really didn’t!"
"Alright, whether you did or not, Mr. Wang Zemin, you have to co with us now."
"Let go! Let go!"
Lu Luo, watching the entire scene, shook his head slightly. So, even in an empire this vast, arrests weren’t always based purely on evidence. Captain Zhang was a Third Tier Transcendent, sowhat weaker than a Third Tier from within the Wall, perhaps not even as strong as Kevin Jones. But such power, among ordinary people, was already considered very strong. Careful observation and reasoning would reveal several inconsistencies in this case, such as the ti of the cri, the murder weapon, and why Li Wei hadn’t made any noise. These points could easily overturn their current narrative.
But Captain Zhang didn’t seem to notice these inconsistencies. Or rather, he noticed but chose not to ntion them.
The unclear social hierarchy between Transcendents and ordinary people was actually a very serious problem. Peaceful coexistence, equality for all—is that really possible? Of course not. Even when it cos to manual labor like carrying bricks, an ordinary person might move a thousand a day and be exhausted. A First Tier Transcendent, however, could carry ten thousand a day without breaking a sweat. With such a disparity in strength, how could there be equality? If you were to talk about equality, you’d have to pay them ten tis the wage. But if Transcendents were really paid ten tis more, it might be fine for a short period, but over ti, conflicts would inevitably arise. Even if their workloads genuinely differed tenfold, conflicts would still erge.
Because Transcendents and ordinary people are inherently different. This difference made it utterly impossible for them to achieve equality.
"Without a complete Transcendent professional system, the Empire’s current situation is hard to predict! The Empire’s primary objectives, its main enemies—these things would take ti to ascertain."
"What are you worrying about here?" the Observer asked.
"I’m worried I won’t be able to live a good life or afford a big house!"
"Beco nobility, and you’ll have everything," the Observer stated.
Lu Luo nodded. Yes, in the Empire, if one could beco nobility, then many things would indeed be attainable!
Lu Luo continued following the Security Bureau personnel and arrived at the urban area of Dong’an City. Their mobile phones had no signal here, and to contact Gu Fangyi and the others, they would have to et at the designated spot tonight. Since he couldn’t contact his companions for the ti being, he decided to focus on his own tasks first.
Lu Luo strolled through the Security Bureau office as if he owned the place. So people glanced at him, but most were busy with their own work and paid him no mind.
He reached the records room, where evidence and docunts were scattered haphazardly. Lu Luo began to casually sift through them. The Security Bureau was a ss—at least, the Dong’an City branch was. Ordinary people and Transcendents were mixed, the organization lacked efficiency, and its execution was abysmal. An organization like this couldn’t compare to the Hunters, let alone the guards from within the Wall. Apart from an occasional Third Tier Transcendent captain, Lu Luo hadn’t even seen a single Fourth Tier individual.
He stood openly in the Security Bureau office without using any disguise abilities, yet no one even approached to question him. One could imagine how lax the security was.
A young, chubby police officer looked at Lu Luo strangely, apparently sensing sothing was off. But he didn’t speak up imdiately. Only after a considerable ti, when he was certain Lu Luo was definitely not a detective from the Security Bureau, did he approach. "Hey, sir, you don’t seem to be an officer, do you? This place..."
Before he could finish, Lu Luo interrupted him. "My na is Lu Luo! I’m an agent from the Doomsday Halo Mystery Agency. I’m here today to assist Captain Zhang in investigating the murder case in the suburban rented house. There’s a major issue with this case; it might involve... hmm!"
Lu Luo was running out of excuses and was about to resort to unconventional ans, like Nightmare Power, when the officer surprisingly started to fill in the blanks himself.
"Uh... I understand, I understand. So things aren’t convenient to discuss, I get it. Please, go ahead. I won’t disturb you."
Although the chubby officer had never heard of the Doomsday Halo Mystery Agency, he was a civil servant... It was best to let sleeping dogs lie, to muddle through. Their post was in the Empire’s most Inland region; wasn’t a stable, uneventful life the reason people took the civil service exam? Why ddle in matters involving Transcendents? Were ordinary people like them supposed to deal with anomalies? Impossible!
Lu Luo stared, dumbfounded. The man was just going to leave him be? Alright, this Security Bureau was indeed remarkably lax.
Since no one was bothering him, Lu Luo continued to examine the files and docunts. More than one person noticed sothing odd about him. A second, then a third person began to question Lu Luo’s identity. However, much to Lu Luo’s surprise, whenever soone approached to challenge him, the little chubby officer would proactively intercept them.
"What do you want? Mr. Lu Luo from the Doomsday Halo Mystery Agency is investigating a case. Get lost if you have no business here."
"And you... Yang Liang, you still haven’t paid for the takeout I brought you last ti."
The little chubby officer was quite effective, having already driven away three people for Lu Luo. This gave Lu Luo a long, uninterrupted period to use the Observer to record the files and analyze the cases.
The Observer noted, "The proportion of Transcendent cases is very high, and the way they’re handled..."
Lu Luo already knew the Security Bureau’s thods for handling cases were terrible; he didn’t need the Observer to point it out. Muddling through was one thing, but they were actually framing innocent people! Pinning the bla for cases on ordinary people—how could that be acceptable? Wasn’t that blatantly wronging them?
Having grown accustod to the Wasteland Alliance’s thods of investigation, Lu Luo found it montarily difficult to accept how cases were closed here. The case closure rate here was high, at least double that of the Wasteland Alliance, but many were closed by finding scapegoats.
For example, this one:
A woman in her seventies died mysteriously at ho, cause of death: severed hands and head, excessive blood loss. Yet, the final investigation and reason for closing the case was that the elderly woman, heartbroken over her cat’s death, had committed suicide...
??? What the hell? How did a woman in her seventies manage to chop off her own hands and then decapitate herself? Were these case conclusions not based on any normal logic?
Lu Luo felt the case-closing thods here were more absurd than so of the sensationalist news from his previous life or certain "Exploring Science" type programs.
Alright, I suddenly feel like I’m a very upright person. At least most of the ti, I don’t like to pin the bla for Transcendent matters on ordinary people.
"To be fair, that’s true," the Observer conceded.
Lu Luo stopped looking through the files; there was no point in continuing. On the Security Bureau’s walls hung provincial, city, and national maps.
Dong’an City was located in a corner of the New Empire.
According to the map, Dong’an City is roughly in the Guizhou region? And the Doomsday Halo is located roughly where the Sichuan Basin would be?
Comparing the topography, the two were indeed very similar.
An Inland region, huh!
Putting down the file, Lu Luo smiled and nodded at the chubby officer, who quickly nodded back.
After they exchanged acknowledgnts, the interrogation in the adjoining room concluded. Wang Zemin erged looking utterly dejected. It was unclear what he had experienced in the interrogation room, but he now seed devoid of all strength, standing there with a look of resignation, his will to resist gone.
His parents had rushed over upon hearing the news. They owned a small courier company. His mother was weeping, distraught and helpless. His father, however, remained relatively composed. Upon hearing his son was accused of murder, Wang Zemin’s father seed to age several years in an instant. Yet, he maintained the rationality a man should, clenching his fists tightly, waiting for his son to appear.
"Xiaomin, tell , did you kill soone or not? Speak!"
SLAP! The blow seed to jolt Wang Zemin partially back to his senses. His eyes were still vacant, but he could at least answer his father.
"Dad, I didn’t... but it doesn’t matter anymore. They’ve already convicted ."
"It doesn’t matter! As long as you say you didn’t, I’ll fight this case for you, even if it ans losing everything!"
As a small business owner who had navigated the complexities of Dong’an for many years, Wang’s father had so street smarts. Although he was an ordinary person, he had had so contact with Transcendents. Upon hearing that his son had committed murder, Wang’s father imdiately sensed that sothing was amiss. Wang Zemin had been timid since childhood; his greatest interest was playing video gas. Although Wang’s father disapproved of his son’s gaming, he had indulged him, seeing as he didn’t cause trouble and his studies were adequate. For soone with such a personality, even speaking harshly was rare, let alone committing murder. While not ruling out the possibility of a sudden Outburst, Wang’s father, who knew his son well, felt that this situation was highly suspect.
Captain Zhang, also erging from the interrogation room, shook his head slightly at Wang’s father. "Mr. Wang, the case is closed."
"Captain Zhang, we all know how your Security Bureau closes cases. If it were soone else, I could ignore it, but this ti, it’s my son."
Captain Zhang knew all too well what Mr. Wang was implying. He rubbed the evidence bag in his hand; the Spiritual Energy residue on the weapon inside was still distinct, though his colleagues from the forensics departnt had erased it using their usual thods. They often used this tactic; once soone was marked, there was usually no way to overturn it. If Mr. Wang wanted to overturn the verdict, it would largely depend on how much money he was willing to spend on bribes.
However, Captain Zhang was sowhat uneasy about this matter because incidents in the Transcendent Domain had been frequent recently. The case rate had already risen by 120% compared to last year.
Things are getting unstable!
Just as Captain Zhang was about to turn and leave, Lu Luo rather inopportunely stepped in front of them. "Wait."
"Who are you?" Captain Zhang looked at Lu Luo with a puzzled expression. He didn’t recognize this young man. What did he want?
"I am Lu Luo, an investigator from the Doomsday Halo Mystery Agency. I’ve been entrusted by Mr. Wang to handle the murder case involving his son, Wang Zemin. This is my card!"
Lu Luo casually produced a card. As it rested in his hand, infused with the power of the Fusioner, it transford into a business card.
[Doomsday Halo Mystery Agency - Lu Luo]
The card was gilded, signifying considerable value. Gold was a key legal tender in the Empire, used for minting Imperial Gold Coins. Anyone using gold for business cards, even plated ones, was clearly no ordinary person.
Captain Zhang looked at the card, unsure of Lu Luo’s background. He couldn’t sense any energy fluctuations from Lu Luo to determine his strength. He could only glance at Mr. Wang.
Mr. Wang didn’t recognize Lu Luo, but he was a man seasoned by years in society. Although unsure of Lu Luo’s intentions, the situation couldn’t get any worse. Dismbernt and murder—that’s a certain death sentence. If Lu Luo was here to help, he might as well let him try.
"That’s right. Mr. Lu Luo is here at my behest, retained at considerable expense. Captain Zhang, please discuss the matter with him."
After speaking, Mr. Wang looked at the smiling Lu Luo. Lu Luo nodded to him, as if to say, "Leave this to ."
Mr. Wang felt a flicker of sothing and, surprisingly, a sense of trust began to form. He nodded back at Lu Luo.
"This old man gets it!" the Observer comnted.
"Heh, in that case, I certainly can’t betray Mr. Wang’s trust." Lu Luo turned his gaze back to Captain Zhang and suddenly snatched the evidence bag from his hand.
"What are you doing?" Captain Zhang glared at Lu Luo, on the verge of drawing his weapon, but Lu Luo remained unconcerned.
He held up the evidence bag containing the weapon, smiled, and said, "The weapon is covered with a very strong... ah, Spiritual Energy residue. Mr. Wang Zemin is an ordinary person. I won’t even discuss motive, thod, or ti of the cri. Based on this Spiritual Energy alone, Mr. Wang Zemin couldn’t be the murderer, could he?"
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