Chapter 275: Thoughtful

After the truck left Guangshan City, the weather quickly cleared up.

Feng Ling opened the cargo door and saw the distant city shrouded in thunderclouds, looking like another world entirely.

Fresh air rushed into the cargo bay, sweeping away the stale, heavy air.

She tossed aside her raincoat, stained with blood and grime, and sat on the edge of the cargo bay. Closing her eyes, she enjoyed the gentle breeze and sunlight, savoring a moment of peace.

The sound of Li Qing and Ye Zheng’s conversation came from behind her.

Li Qing said, “Of these two Cards, one is the Gu Insect Master, and the other is Insect Eggs. According to the Card information I looked up, one of the Gu Insect Master’s abilities is to incubate Insect Eggs within its own body to cultivate an Insect King. The Gu Insect Master then controls the lesser insects by manipulating the Insect King. Feng Ling killed the Insect King, which is why the Gu Insect Master created new Insect Eggs inside itself.”

“Without the Gu Insect Master, they can’t control anyone. No wonder they took such a huge risk to steal the Cards. It’s obvious these two Cards are extremely important to them,” Ye Zheng said coldly.

Li Qing nodded. “Control-type Cards have many uses. Without the Gu Insect Master and the Insect King, the existing parasitic insects will gradually become inactive. This is a huge blow to the Star Association.”

Huangfu Miaomiao couldn’t resist chiming in, “The Star Association is loaded. Can’t they just buy another Gu Insect Master Card?”

“They can’t,” Li Qing said, shaking his head. “The Gu Insect Master is a Rare Card. There’s only one.”

Ye Zheng raised an eyebrow at that. “So you’re saying the only Gu Insect Master Card is in Feng Ling’s hands? Does that mean the Star Association will keep coming after her?”

Li Qing considered this before replying, “I think that’s highly likely, unless the Star Association can find other control-type Cards to replace the Gu Insect Master.”

Huangfu Miaomiao grew worried. “In that case, shouldn’t Feng Ling just turn these two Cards over to the Inspection Bureau? Or sell them to a Hunter? This feels so dangerous…”

Li Qing mulled it over for a moment. “Actually, I personally don’t think she should hand over the Cards. Whether it’s to the Inspection Bureau or someone else, the risk is just as great, in my opinion. The Gu Insect Master’s ability is too unique. Anyone infested by the lesser insects becomes its string puppet, no matter how powerful they are. So, unless it’s to someone you can absolutely trust, giving away Cards like these has more drawbacks than benefits. It would only create more potential enemies for Feng Ling.”

He instinctively glanced at Ye Zheng, expecting a rebuttal, but she remained silent.

Afraid of offending her, Li Qing carefully added, “I’m sure the Inspectors wouldn’t deliberately give Feng Ling a hard time. I just think it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

Ye Zheng spoke with a cold expression. “I don’t agree with handing over the Cards either. Human nature can’t be tested like that. Control-type Cards are usually sealed away at the research institute. Only a handful are ever given to Inspectors, because no one dares to sign off on the approval forms.”

Feng Ling flopped backward, spreading her limbs out like a starfish. “So much hemming and hawing. No wonder the Inspector teams are developing at a snail’s pace.”

Ye Zheng frowned. “Slow is for the sake of stability. If someone holding a Card like this were to go astray and use their ability on their own people, the damage to the entire Inspector program would be devastating.”

Feng Ling chuckled. “Ever consider that maybe the Inspector teams themselves are just too fragile?”

Instead of getting angry, Ye Zheng actually nodded in agreement. “Maybe in another year, or a year and a half, once the entire inspection system is more mature and robust, we’ll try to train Inspectors with abilities similar to the Gu Insect Master.”

After saying this, she couldn’t help but frown in disgust and mutter, “No. I’d rather hope that a year from now, every last Alien Species and Pollution Body has vanished from the face of the Earth.”

‘Aren’t you a Pollution Body, too?’ Feng Ling thought.

Li Qing asked her, “Feng Ling, what do you think? I can only offer advice. The final decision is up to you.”

“I’ll keep them for now,” Feng Ling said, closing her eyes languidly. “You guys think too much. Give your brains a rest. It’s not too late to worry about all this once we’re back in Qingjiang.”

Ye Zheng snorted. “If you hadn’t run your mouth on the livestream, we could actually relax right now. That leech who logged off could show up at any time. I suggest you start making a plan sooner rather than later.”

Feng Ling had been lounging comfortably, but the mention of the Alien Species who’d logged off instantly soured her mood.

“Daoist,” she said, opening her eyes to ask Li Qing, “aside from ripping off their jaw, is there any other way to stop an Alien Species from logging off?”

Li Qing froze. “Rip… rip off their jaw?”

‘You’ve done this before???’

Li Qing recalled that she had, in fact, done that before. It was just that her fights were always so violent, a bloody, mangled mess, that he’d never thought about it that way.

“There are two main ways to log off,” Li Qing explained in detail. “The most common is manual operation on the virtual screen: you open your personal interface, tap your account, tap ‘log off,’ then a pop-up asks you to confirm, and you tap ‘confirm’ again… Then there’s a shortcut for when a player is in danger and can’t use the manual controls. They can use a voice command to activate the log-off sequence. So… your method, ripping off their jaw, would indeed stop a player from logging off.”

Feng Ling frowned. “That’s a pain. So next time I want to stop someone from logging off, I’ll have to rip off their jaw and chop off their hands.”

Li Qing’s mouth twitched. “Even if you rip off their jaw and chop off their hands, it might not be enough. There’s a third way: a timed log-off. For example, you can set it to log off in five minutes. At the four-and-a-half-minute mark, the system will start a log-off countdown. Any player action during that period will interrupt the countdown and cancel the log-off sequence.”

“You can do that?” Huangfu Miaomiao quickly pulled up her virtual screen. After searching through her personal interface, she found the timed log-off setting, tucked away in a very inconspicuous menu.

“This is great! This is great!” Huangfu Miaomiao said approvingly. “Next time I go on a dangerous mission, I’ll set a timed log-off beforehand. That way I’m covered if something happens and I can’t do it myself.”

Feng Ling was not in a good mood.

She suspected that’s how the leech had escaped.

The phone in the Ziploc bag started buzzing. Someone was calling her.

Feng Ling sat up and took a look. It was Su Yuqing.

She answered the call through the plastic bag, poking the screen several times before it finally responded.

On the other end of the line, Su Yuqing let out a long sigh of relief. “You didn’t answer for so long, I was starting to think something had happened to you all.”

“We’re fine, just on the road,” Feng Ling said. “We should be back in Qingjiang in another seven or eight hours.”

Su Yuqing said, “Xu Yiming must be exhausted from driving so long. I’ve sent a car to meet you halfway.”

“Great~” Feng Ling smiled. “Captain Su is as thoughtful as ever.”

Su Yuqing hesitated for a moment before speaking again. “When… when you get on the Guangqing Highway, a floral motorcade will be there to escort you. When the time comes, you… just play along.”