Book 3, Chapter 181: Channel

After hearing the tell-tale beep of the other party ending the call, Chen Chuan mulled over the conversation. He wondered which organization the caller belonged to. Was he from Toxic Ants? The Moss Gang? Or GreenSource Eco-Tech?

There was an underlying threat in the person’s words, but that also showed that their strength was limited, and they were wary. Otherwise, they could have just attacked him instead of negotiating.

But this revealed that it wasn’t just a business conflict. Something else was involved.

Still, if the caller was able to figure out who he was, then they should know that Chen Chuan wasn’t going to stay here. There was no need to threaten him in such a hurry. They could have said it

after

he left.

Were they perhaps worried precisely because they knew who he was and that the Resolution Department was likely to interfere?

Well, well, that made things more interesting.

Perhaps he could write up a report later. After all, while the Resolution Department didn’t care much about the lower city district, it was still part of Central City and within the department’s jurisdiction.

While he was thinking about it, Lan Shennan contacted him. “Chen Chuan, is there anything else you want us to take care of? If not, we can go back now.”

“Let’s go. By the way, do you have a resonator?” Chen Chuan asked.

“We do. We have a whole team. Do you need them?” Lan Shennan asked.

“It’s nothing big. I’d just like them to help me look into a signal later, if they’re free,” Chen Chuan said.

He couldn’t connect to the upper city district’s signal here, so he couldn’t ask Wu Bei for help. But if Clear Road Transport had their own resonators, they could help him investigate.

“Alright. I’ll tell them.”

The motorcade headed back to the base.

Once they left, one of the Toxic Ants saved the recording of Chen Chuan and Gai Er’s fight that just happened and went to a corner to speak into his Realm Pass.

“As you asked, I’ve recorded the fight with the Realm Pass you gave me, but you never mentioned that it was going to be so dangerous. I need a higher payment for it.”

A moment later, he said, “Very generous of you, Boss! Let’s trade at the usual place. I’ll go there right now.”

***

Once Lao Bian finally recovered from the shock of watching the video that had been sent to his Realm Pass, he thanked his lucky stars that he had never gotten into a fight with Chen Chuan. Otherwise, Gai Er might not have been the one with his head crushed today. Lao Bian would have taken his place.

Most of the Third Limit martial artists in the lower city district belonged to the same social circle, so the moment Gai Er died, the news spread. Since Gai Er often had dealings with Lao Bian, someone immediately contacted him.

“Lao Bian, I heard that Clear Road hired the one who killed Gai Er. Isn’t that your group? Why did they get another person? Have you retired?”

Lao Bian knew that while the person sounded like they were asking him whether the news was real or not, they were actually here to mock him. Third Limit martial artists could fight even when they were old, but people like him only showed their faces during crucial moments and usually didn’t even do anything. Why would he retire, then? Clearly, he had been fired.

Anger burned in Lao Bian’s heart, but he had to give a reply for appearance’s sake. He made a few offhand remarks and brushed the matter aside.

Right after he was done with that conversation, someone else connected to him. “Lao Bian, the new one is pretty strong. Is he your disciple? You’ve never mentioned him before.”

“That’s not my disciple,” Lao Bian hissed while suppressing his rage.

“He’s not? You’re stepping down, just like that, even though he’s not your disciple? That’s why they say you’re a respectable and morally upright person. You’re stepping down to make way for the younger generation! That’s amazing. You’re

so

unlike us. We’re too worldly. We can’t bear to step down.”

Right after he was done with this one, another one called a moment later. Clearly, what he had said to the previous two had spread around, and the third one said in a seemingly comforting tone, “I’ve watched Gai Er’s fight, and I understand why you did what you did. The youngsters nowadays are all hot-tempered and don’t obey the martial code. We’re all old now and have no reason to compete against them. Once you know that you’re not strong enough, it’s better to step down. You’ve been fighting your entire life, so it’s time to enjoy life.”

Once he was done with all the conversations, Lao Bian’s expression was as dark as a thundercloud, but his disciple couldn’t read the room and said excitedly, “Master, now that Gai Er is dead, it’s time for us to shine, right?”

“Shine how, exactly?!” Lao Bian snapped at him. The fight had terrified him to his bones. Toxic Ants and the Moss Gang should deal with Chen Chuan.

The disciple hunched his shoulders and mumbled, “Then... what will we do?”

Lao Bian huffed and said, “Do you really think that Toxic Ants will back off just because Gai Er died? Would the Moss Gang let things end, just like this? It won’t be that easy. Just you wait. The show’s not over yet.”

The disciple understood what he meant. Just then, someone contacted him. He answered it, asked a few questions, and said, “Master, it’s Toxic Ants. They’re asking us whether we knew who this person was earlier, and if we did, why didn’t we tell them.”

“Tell them that the new guy arrived yesterday, and we didn’t have time to look into him. Besides, they agreed to the fight. Why didn’t they look into him themselves? Are we supposed to provide them with all the information?” Lao Bian sneered.

“Got it.”

A moment later, the disciple said, “Master, Toxic Ants said that this isn’t over yet.”

Lao Bian scoffed while feeling frustrated. Were they thinking about threatening him because they thought that they couldn’t take Chen Chuan down? Did they think that they could walk all over him?

***

After returning to the base, Chen Chuan got out of the RV. The resonator Lan Shennan got for him had already arrived. Mr. Chi was a stern and serious man in his thirties.

Once he checked the signal, he said, “It should have come from a Realm Node. In order to avoid getting tracked in the lower city district, we usually relay signals through multiple points. We send the signal to someone completely unconnected to our affairs, then pass it to someone else. Sometimes, we even relay the signal multiple times.

“Few people know where the signal gets transferred to in the end.

“This is a simple, but useful method. Even if we find the Realm Node, it might just be some random person hired on the official platform, not the caller themselves. If you insist on finding them, we can do it.”

“Is that so? Thank you for checking it out,” Chen Chuan said. If even someone skilled wouldn’t be able to find the caller easily, there was no need for him to track them down.

Still, he pondered over this for a moment before asking, “Do you have any way to contact the upper city district from here?”

“The upper city district performs a constant domain lockdown on us, but we can bypass it through certain vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities are in the hands of the gangs and organizations, though. We had a channel in the past, but after we got into trouble, we lost it.

“Right now, if we want to establish a stable connection with the upper city district, we need to purchase a signal from one of the gangs or organizations. This costs a lot of money, and the conversation might get leaked.

“If you have any urgent or secret matters you need to pass to the upper city district, we can set up a dominant domain signal, but since this is a private signal, it will get targeted and intercepted, so you won’t be able to communicate with the other person for long. If it’s within three minutes, we can help you.”

Chen Chuan nodded. “Thank you. Please set it up. I might need it later.”

“It’s okay. Captain Lan said to cooperate with you, after all. I’ll get things ready,” Mr. Chi said.

Lan Shennan came over after he left and handed Chen Chuan a golden card. “This is the reward we’ve promised you.”

Chen Chuan took a look and found that it was a gold card from Grand Prosperity Finance. It seemed like this company had a service branch even in the lower city district.

A few questions later, he learned that the money was originally prepared for Lao Bian. According to their agreement, Clear Road Transport was supposed to pay him once a month, but recently, the group was in such a horrible state that they hadn’t paid him for a few months. Now, they paid Chen Chuan all that they owed Lao Bian.

It was a total of two hundred thousand devs, which was practically all the profit the group had earned this season after deducting their expenses.

By the looks of it, Lao Bian had had an easy, luxurious life living off of Clear Road Transport. By doing practically nothing, he got lots of money every month. Even so, he was not content with it.

After some thinking, Chen Chuan handed the card back.

His action puzzled Lan Shennan, but she immediately thought of something. “Chen Chuan, I know that this might be too little for you, but that’s because we haven’t been able to make any major deals. That’s why we can’t give you more. We’ve been able to reclaim our territories, though. I’m sure that we’ll be able to earn much more from now on. We’ll reimburse you then.”

Chen Chuan shook his head at that. “That’s not what I meant. I heard from Lu Ke that you’ve been looking for implants for Mr. Yu.

“Mr. Yu brought me into the world of martial arts. If he’s in trouble, I should help if I’m able to. Take this money and get better implants for him, please.”

Lan Shennan stared at him in dumbfounded shock for a moment before she took the golden card back. “Master Yu does need the money.”

Then, as she held the card, she said seriously, “I’ll be borrowing this from you. I’ll pay you back.”

“No hurries. By the way, where did you get Mr. Yu’s implant?” Chen Chuan asked.

“I asked the clients from the upper city district to buy them for me, but they said that they can only buy them from small companies. They can’t contact the big ones,” Lan Shennan answered.

Chen Chuan hummed at that. He was sure that the clients wanted to earn some money from Lan Shennan for this help, which meant that she was paying the client

and

the companies. Not only was she spending a ton of money, but the implants she got were also not necessarily good.

“Do you have a qualified implant specialist?” he then asked.

“We do. We have quite a few security guards who have implants. We originally had three implant specialists, but now, we only have one left.

“She’s good and trustworthy, though. She was the one who put the implant into Master Yu. We also have a medical pod. It’s something from the original Clear Road Transport that we got ownership of.”

Chen Chuan nodded and said, “If that’s the case, let me get a supply channel of implants for you.”