Chapter 274: Something Important

Chapter 274: Chapter 274: Something Important

"I get it. We all want to make a change." Fang Ye placed a hand on He Su’s shoulder and said with a smile, "Now that we’ve chosen to become Hunters, I’m sure we’ll get a chance to do something big. Who knows, maybe tomorrow the company will send us to cooperate with Feng Ling."

He Su finally cracked a smile and looked back at him. "You’re even more ambitious than I am. She’s top-tier right now—already cleared two Mazes in a row. We don’t even know which way the door to a Maze opens!"

Fang Ye chuckled. "It all comes down to effort."

’He figured the reason his mindset was different from He Su’s was because when He Su first heard of Feng Ling, she was already the highly acclaimed No. 1 on the Hunter rankings. But when he met Feng Ling, he had been very, very close to her.’

’Because he’d met her in person, he felt a subtle sense of psychological closeness.’

’Of course, he knew he was a long way from Feng Ling’s level, but it was a distance that could be closed through hard work, not an insurmountable gap.’

He Su joked, "Fang Ye, oh, Fang Ye. Your name says it all. ’Fang’ for scheming every which way, and ’Ye’ for wild ambition!"

Fang Ye smiled and shook his head. "My ’Fang’ is for ’aiming for the four corners of the world,’ and my ’Ye’ is for ’a thousand miles of fertile plains’."

’One day, he would make everyone remember his name.’

’The ’Fang’ of aiming for the four corners of the world, and the ’Ye’ of a thousand miles of fertile plains.’

......

...

「Guangshan City, amidst a torrential downpour—」

Feng Ling and her group were taking shelter from the rain in the back of a truck, resting peacefully while they waited for Han Xu to handle the chaos caused by the leeches.

The congested roads had to be cleared, the injured needed to be taken to the hospital, and on top of that, Han Xu had to field calls from his superiors and coordinate with the military to lift the quarantine on the sealed-off zone...

Han Xu was fine when handling one thing at a time, but he was completely overwhelmed now that everything was happening at once.

Duan Fei was also helping with some of the work, standing guard by the slimy leech corpses while he contacted the Cleaner Fish to come to the scene.

Feng Ling sat in the shipping container enjoying the show, pointing and commenting, "Captain Han isn’t very good at his job, is he? If this were Su Yuqing, she’d have everything organized in minutes."

Xu Yiming nodded. "Yeah!"

Ye Zheng shot the two of them a speechless glance. She knew they were making a veiled reference to Su Yuqing’s cloning ability.

She spoke up, "That’s because Han Xu wasn’t originally in charge of these things. Someone else used to be, so it’s only natural he’s not good at handling them."

"Huh?" Feng Ling turned to look at her. "Then why is Han Xu in charge now?"

Ye Zheng said impassively, "Because that person is dead. He was the original Inspector Captain of Guangshan City. He was attacked by an Alien Species on his way home. Han Xu went to rescue him, but not only did he fail to save the man, he lost an arm in the process. His combat effectiveness has been drastically reduced ever since. Why else do you think a combat-type like him would switch to a desk job?"

It dawned on Feng Ling. "Oh, so that’s what happened..."

Ye Zheng’s gaze pierced the curtain of rain, settling on Duan Fei among the distant crowd.

"My guess is, Duan Fei’s Card Ability is probably similar to Han Xu’s," she said. "That way, Han Xu can pass down all his combat experience without holding anything back. He’s essentially found a successor for himself, so he can peacefully retire to a background role in the future."

Feng Ling frowned, not quite understanding. "Is it that serious? It’s just a lost arm. Maybe the next time he absorbs a Card with a healing ability, it’ll grow back."

Everyone in the truck fell silent.

Only someone like Feng Ling could say "it’s just a lost arm" so casually.

Ye Zheng said coolly, "An Inspector Captain may have command authority and be a rank higher than a Deputy Captain, but in practice, the captain is far less important. So, from a perspective of maximizing benefits, even if an extremely rare healing-ability Card appeared, it would never be allocated to an Inspector Captain."

She paused for a moment, then added, "Besides... while Han Xu is very good, his overall strength isn’t significantly greater than other Inspectors. Talented people are a dime a dozen. Take Duan Fei, who was transferred to Guangshan City. Han Xu is probably well aware of this, which is why he willingly transferred to a civilian post."

"You think Duan Fei is more talented than Han Xu?" Feng Ling frowned as she watched the busy figure in the distance. "I don’t see it..."

Ye Zheng scooted further into the truck, closing her eyes to rest. "I’m not sure. It’s just a guess. Unless they fight and settle it, who’s to say?"

"Hey... Duan Fei is coming over," Feng Ling said, slightly surprised.

Hearing this, Ye Zheng opened her eyes and looked outside with suspicion.

Duan Fei ran over in a raincoat, wiped the rain from his face, and held something out to Feng Ling. "Is this your phone?" he asked.

The phone was in a transparent ziplock bag, which was covered in the leech’s blood and mucus.

Feng Ling subconsciously patted her waist, discovering that her waist pack—and the phone inside it—was gone.

She stared at the bag in Duan Fei’s hand, stunned. "...It actually is my phone."

Ye Zheng, who had been calm moments before, suddenly exploded. "You didn’t even realize you’d lost your own phone! If you were an Inspector, losing your phone would be like a cop losing their gun! It’s an incredibly serious offense!"

"But I’m not an Inspector," Feng Ling retorted with a frown. "It’s perfectly normal to lose a phone during a fight."

Duan Fei smiled and said, "We dug this out of the leech’s body."

Feng Ling froze again when she heard that.

She took the phone, finding the whole thing incredible.

’How could my phone have ended up inside the leech’s body?’

Feng Ling didn’t usually like to overthink things, but she wasn’t an idiot. It only took a moment of thought for her to piece together the entire incident.

"No wonder," Feng Ling said, holding up the stinking ziplock bag with two fingers and shaking her head at the phone inside. "It kept coming at me even though it obviously couldn’t win. Turns out its target wasn’t me from the beginning—it was my phone! Tsk, I almost forgot. This phone is holding something from an Alien Species."

Duan Fei quickly asked, "Something from an Alien Species? What is it?"

The corners of Feng Ling’s mouth curled up, and she smiled at him. "Two Cards."

’A few days ago, she’d killed the Gu Insect Master at the docks and gotten two Cards. Since then, she’d been preparing to enter the Maze and hadn’t gotten around to dealing with them.’

’Now that she was out of the Maze, it was the perfect time to examine them.’

Suddenly, Feng Ling was itching to go home.

She said to Duan Fei, "Tell your Captain Han I said goodbye. I’m heading back to Qingjiang now. We’ll be in touch."

Duan Fei’s eyes widened. "What? You’re leaving today? What about the press conference... and the report on the Maze...?"

"Talk to him—" Feng Ling raised her hand and patted Xu Yiming on the shoulder.

Xu Yiming instinctively wanted to refuse, but then he remembered how little he had helped Feng Ling in the Maze. The only way he could be useful now was probably to handle all the subsequent publicity and paperwork.

He immediately straightened his back and told Duan Fei decisively, "That’s right. Talk to me."

Duan Fei reluctantly conceded, "...All right, I guess."

The truck’s rear doors slammed shut, and the large vehicle drove off before Duan Fei’s eyes, gradually vanishing into the downpour.