Book 3, Chapter 16: Wrap Up

Once City Defense’s security team left, Wu Bei cried out in delight, “Chen Chuan, they left!”

He then sighed in relief and said fearfully, “Thank goodness Jing Li only picked the Class C service. If he’d chosen the Class B service, the security team wouldn’t have left.”

Chen Chuan didn’t know the clauses of the agreements, but he had the unrestricted defense permit and wasn’t scared of the City Defense’s security team. But since they left, that saved him a lot of trouble.

Still, he should take a look at the agreements and keep them in mind.

When there was no one left standing around to oppose him, Chen Chuan returned to the building and retrieved the Frost King Saber’s sheath, then grabbed some hair and blood from Lang Teng and Bo Chen.

“Are you leaving already?” Wu Bei asked. “One second. I’m hacking into their data center to delete today’s records. They have a lot of data stored in their Realm Node. Most of it is related to anomalous-event missions. Let me just nab all of them too.”

Chen Chuan nodded. “Take your time. You don’t have to hurry.”

Since City Defense’s security team had left, no one was going to come for the time being.

While the City Maintenance Department might send someone to collect the bodies, they wouldn’t do it right away.

Qi Gao had received word that Chen Chuan was done, and he drove over. No one was controlling the Realm Nodes, and Wu Bei had already blocked all biofield signals in the area, so Qi Gao wasn’t worried about being exposed. While he was driving, Wu Bei dragged him into the channel they shared.

Once Qi Gao parked his SUV, he walked over. The sight of the corpses littered everywhere made him gasp in amazement.

He now truly understood Chen Chuan’s destructive power. It had only been a while since Chen Chuan left, and he managed to kill an elite agent team and their security guards.

Suddenly, Wu Bei gasped in the channel, and his voice rose in volume. “I just found something. Based on their security footage, they stored a large amount of cash in their company yesterday.”

“Cash? We have to take it!” Qi Gao blurted out. He then added, “I’m not being greedy here, but think about it. If we don’t do it, the ones who come to clean up the mess will take the cash. Then, they’re going to blame us for taking it. If we’re going to be blamed for it either way, it’s better to take it ourselves. Without the money lying around, the clean-up guys won’t even know it ever existed.”

“There are no records of the cash ever existing in their records, so we won’t get trouble for taking it.” Wu Bei agreed to it.

“What do you say, Chen Chuan?” Qi Gao asked.

“We’ll take it,” Chen Chuan gave a swift, short answer.

He still needed to think of a way to get rid of the supernatural being. If he couldn’t take it out instantly, he would need a lot of money to buy the materials needed for the binding ritual. Gold Prawn’s cash would be perfect for it.

With Chen Chuan’s okay, Qi Gao ran inside full of excitement, and Wu Bei guided him to a room. There, he saw a bag of cash Gold Prawn hadn’t been able to deal with in time.

He came down with the bag and lamented, “It’s a pity we only got to grab their cash. The money in Gold Prawn’s bank account will end up benefitting some other lucky bastard, I guess.”

Wu Bei checked through the Realm Node and said, “They don’t have much money in their bank account, just a little over two thousand. I think it’s for emergencies.”

Qi Gao thought about it and found it normal. It was still the New Year holidays, so Gold Prawn would have distributed the year’s earnings to its members long before the holidays started, which meant that most of the money was definitely within people’s personal accounts.

When it came to personal accounts, Wu Bei could check their balance, but he couldn’t withdraw the money even after cracking the passwords, because most bank accounts were linked to their owners’ biofields. The moment they died or were no longer in a safe area, their accounts were immediately frozen. Aside from the owners and their heirs, no one could touch the money in the bank accounts.

Qi Gao and Chen Chuan waited for another ten minutes before Wu Bei whooped in excitement, “It’s done! I got all the data!”

“Let’s go, then,” Chen Chuan said.

They got into the SUV and drove away. Qi Gao cast a glance at the flashy gold prawn above the building in the backview mirror and said, “Chen Chuan, I’m sure that Gold Prawn had someone backing them. We have to be careful from now on.”

“Got it,” Chen Chuan grunted.

It all depended on the situation. If Gold Prawn’s senior members were around, they would be able to use their connections, but all of them had died. How many people would be willing and interested to take revenge for them?

“Don’t worry,” Wu Bei said. “I’ve deleted all of Chen Chuan’s records in the building and changed his travel records. Without a clear target in mind, they won’t be able to track him down.”

“What about City Defense? They must have a record, right?” Qi Gao asked.

“Yes, but City Defense doesn’t reveal their records to the public. Unless you buy their service packages, that is. Even then, only those who sign the Class A Defense Agreement are privy to their records.”

Qi Gao sighed in relief. The Class A Defense Agreement was the top security service City Defense offered, and only the truly powerful in Central City had the privilege to enjoy it. Even if Gold Prawn sold all their assets, they wouldn’t be able to buy such a service, and no one would be willing to pay for them either.

Wu Bei sent Qi Gao an audio message, and he pondered over his words before turning to Chen Chuan. “I think Wu Bei is really suited for our team. Why don’t we let him join us? What do you think about that?”

Wu Bei trembled with nervous excitement in his apartment.

He had asked Qi Gao to make that request for him, because he had never seen a martial artist as strong as Chen Chuan before. In the future, Chen Chuan was going to take up all sorts of anomalous-event missions, which meant he would fight against all the evil and horrible people and creatures in the shadows. The thought of it alone made him excited.

By this point, Chen Chuan had realized that having a resonator on the team was essential for operating in Central City. “Wu Bei is really skilled. If this isn’t too much for him—”

“It isn’t!”

Chen Chuan laughed. “Alright. If that’s the case, welcome to the team, Wu Bei.”

“

Yes!”

Wu Bei pumped his fists in the air, thrilled.

Once everything was over, it was already noon. As Qi Gao drove, Chen Chuan checked the videos Wu Bei had sent him.

They were records of his fight with Gold Prawn, but since Wu Bei had blocked and deleted the records of him, the people looked like they were fighting against a blurry ball of light.

He could see every single one of their movements clearly, which made him realize how easy it was for the martial artists in Central City to analyze their fights. This was really useful when it came to post-battle reviews and self-improvement.

When he saw the almost perfectly synchronized movements of the elite teams, he instinctively thought that this was due to biofield technology, so he extracted a part of a video and sent it to Wu Bei. Then, he asked, “Do you know what this is, Wu Bei?”

“That one? Yeah. By connecting to active and passive biosentient entities, these people can access the records and data inside, and they can then adjust their movements and strategy. Sometimes, they don’t even need to think. The biosentient entities make adjustments for them, but for that to happen, they need to get certain implants,” Wu Bei supplied after taking a look.

With that, Chen Chuan understood how the entire thing worked, and he understood that he couldn’t look down on this technology. Gold Prawn’s elites simply hadn’t been strong and well-equipped enough. If their standards had been a tad higher, Chen Chuan wouldn’t have been able to kill them so easily.

He was certain that City Defense’s security team also had this technology. Their individual strengths must also be much higher than Gold Prawn’s elites.

If he faced such enemies, he had no other way to win aside from being stronger than them.

Chen Chuan sucked in a deep breath. His next step was to get stronger within the shortest amount of time possible.

***

Soon after they left, dozens of cars came over, and a large number of people got off. They appeared to be gang members, and most had short, frizzy hair like moss. They had also dyed their hair into all sorts of colors.

One of the gang leaders saw the horrific slaughter on the square, then went over to Jing Li’s corpse. He removed his polarized sunglasses and scoffed. “He got into trouble with a tough bastard.”

His lackey asked, “Should we look for the people who killed them?”

“For what? Is Jing Li your dad or grandfather?” The leader glared at him.

“Neither. My dad is your uncle,” the lackey blurted out, stunned.

“Oh wow, you know that? If so, why do you want to go through all that trouble for these guys?”

“Because we’re business partners...” the lackey said uncertainly.

The leader smacked the lackey’s head with his polarized sunglasses, making the latter yelp as he retreated. The leader grumbled, “Use your head a bit, will you? We worked with them because it made it easier to get stuff from him. Now that they’re gone, we’ll just find another supplier. Why would you want to take revenge for them? Do you have too much free time on your hands? Are you some kind of philanthropist?”

“Stop smacking me already! I’m sorry!”

The leader huffed and looked around him. “Their equipment and implants are pretty good. We should be able to sell them for a dev or two. Strip them of their stuff.”

With a wave of his arm, his lackeys rushed into the building. Soon, someone ran over. “We found the stuff, Leader.”

He hoisted up the bag in his hands.

“Since the stuff is here, we don’t have to stay for long. Tell the others to forget about the worthless stuff and focus only on the valuable models.”

“Got it!”

The lackeys worked for half an hour. Then, the leader received an audio message on his Realm Pass.

“The City Maintenance Department is coming.”

“Are you guys done? If you are, we’re leaving!” the leader immediately shouted.

The lackeys responded and got into their cars with the implants they had crudely yanked off the corpses. The dozens of cars soon left the place.

***

Meanwhile, Qi Gao’s SUV reached the run-down neighborhood again.

Before he got out, Chen Chuan asked, “I didn’t have the time back then to ask, but did you run into any trouble while buying the ritual materials?”

“I didn’t, but...” Qi Gao then hesitated before shaking his head. “It’s nothing. I can handle it.”

Chen Chuan held his gaze and said, “If you’re in any trouble, you can tell me. We’re part of a team now, so your problems are our problems.”

“I really can take care of it on my own, Chen Chuan,” Qi Gao said earnestly.

Chen Chuan nodded and got out of the SUV. While standing at the entrance, he looked into the depths of the run-down neighborhood. They could deal with the rest of their problems later. Right now, he had to take out the mannequin.