CHAPTER 64: CHAPTER 64: HOLIDAY, UPLOAD REVIEWS!

EDITOR: DRAGON BOAT TRANSLATION

April 20th. Grain Rain. Auspicious for burials, mending graves, and planting. Inauspicious for moving house, offering sacrifices, and breaking ground.

"Hey, hey, stop sleeping! It’s time to get off work, time to get off work!"

Ren Suo was jolted awake in the passenger seat. He opened his eyes and saw Chen Kun knocking on the car window from outside.

Rubbing his eyes, Ren Suo got out of the car and said, "Ah, Brother Kun... I’m a bit sleepy today."

"You’ve been like this since the morning; you almost face-planted into your braised pork rice," Chen Kun said. "Young man, take care of your health."

As he spoke, he sighed again. "It’s all my fault, brother. I should have never given you that website."

Too sleepy to ponder Chen Kun’s teasing words, Ren Suo suddenly heard a familiar voice from behind, "Ren Suo, if you keep swaying, you’re going to walk into a lamp post!"

CLUNK! Ren Suo’s head hit the nearby lamp post, followed immediately by two kinds of laughter.

Turning his head, Ren Suo barely perked up. "Xiao Qiao? Young Master Wei?"

The newcomers were Qiao Muyi and her partner, Wei Shaojun. Wei Shaojun was a spirited girl with short hair and glasses. She appeared quite dashing, and her clothing closely resembled a male’s, thus she was known as Young Master Wei in Tactical Team Three.

After greeting Ren Suo and Chen Kun, Qiao Muyi asked, "What brings you guys here?"

Ren Suo turned his head towards Chen Kun, who appeared helpless. "You really were sleeping like a log... We’re here to investigate the Longhui Building."

"Oh..." Ren Suo raised his head, looking toward a construction site about a dozen stories high not far away, finally remembering. "The haunted construction site?"

"That’s right," Chen Kun said. "The report came from the construction firm’s manager. He said strange noises could be heard at the site at night. When workers were on night shifts, people would suddenly drop dead. This happened night after night, and even the foreman died from it. The construction firm finally called the police, but the Heitu Public Security Bureau didn’t find anything wrong. So, it’s now up to us to take over."

The Tactical Bureau had to comply with orders from above. Additionally, it was responsible for resolving unexplainable supernatural occurrences—in fact, these tasks constituted the Bureau’s main responsibilities.

If Awakeners were causing trouble, Tactical Teams One and Two would handle it. If ordinary people were responsible, then they would have to deal with it themselves.

Ren Suo looked at Qiao Muyi and her team. "So, why did you guys come?"

Wei Shaojun said, "We’re handling a missing children case. Roughly seven or eight children have gone missing from a nearby primary school over the past half-month. We coordinated with the Public Security Bureau, compared their home and school locations, and found that they all live not far from this construction site. Of course, it’s also crucial that one child told us the missing children sometimes played near here."

"Then it’s the same case," Ren Suo shrugged, and they all entered the fenced-off construction site together.

Several Public Security Department seals were hung outside the construction site, and a big iron chain Lock was on the main gate. None of them had keys, but that didn’t matter—they simply climbed over the fence to get in.

The site was deserted. Even workers eager to make money would be unnerved after seeing several colleagues suddenly die in their sleep; no normal person could tolerate that. No one from the construction company dared to come either, which, in a way, made their task easier—they could search around freely.

Ren Suo quietly equipped the ’Clothing’ and searched for clues among the concrete and rebar. He hadn’t studied criminal investigation; their search technique certainly wasn’t by sight, as anything visible would have already been spotted by the police officers.

As Cultivators, they naturally relied on their Qi Cyclone’s sensitivity to Spiritual Energy.

Once the Qi Cyclone was active, it became highly sensitive to fluctuations in Spiritual Energy. If a supernatural event had truly occurred here and left apparent traces of Spiritual Energy, they would naturally be able to sense it.

After busying themselves for a couple of hours, night began to fall, but they still hadn’t uncovered anything amiss. Chen Kun clicked his tongue. "We’ll have to continue the investigation tomorrow. If we don’t find anything by tomorrow, then it’ll have to be the day after."

Such supernatural events always had an investigation timeline; if nothing was discovered for three consecutive days, the case had to be abandoned, as the Tactical Bureau couldn’t afford to waste manpower on it.

Wei Shaojun suggested, "Could it be that problems only appear at night?"

Ren Suo glanced at the worksite behind him, which had turned into a gloomy castle, and said expressionlessly, "Then we’ll have to report up first and see if the captain will approve working overtime tonight."

The others nodded in agreement. Although they were public servants at the Tactical Bureau, they hailed from various departments, and any talk of grand ideals was just nonsense. Most of them were merely fortunate ordinary people. Naturally, they had to follow rules and regulations instead of embarking on an adventure fueled by sheer passion to uncover ’the one truth’.

However, as they left the worksite, they suddenly heard an extremely distant cry from behind them.

Chen Kun’s face turned grim. "This matter... perhaps we should hand it over to Tactical Teams One and Two."

As Cultivators who wielded the ’Force’ in their palms, they were no longer much afraid of any gods or Strange Creatures, but when confronted with such a bizarre event, they still couldn’t help but get goosebumps.

This was an outlook shaped by mainstream culture and horror movies over the past two decades. Even with their significantly greater martial power than ordinary people, they couldn’t be immune to this kind of trembling from the bottom of their hearts.

They hurried back to the National Security Bureau to report and clock in. After returning, Qiao Muyi suddenly said to Ren Suo, "By the way, we’re going to the club tonight for Cultivation practice, are you coming? It’s the former students of Team Eight; we plan to gather while practicing at the club."

Ren Suo asked, "Huh? Why don’t I know about it?"

Qiao Muyi asked, "Did you check WeChat?"

Ren Suo slapped his forehead. He had suffered from insomnia all night after turning off his Minor World Game Console the previous night and had been drowsy all day, so of course, he was unaware of this.

Rather than immediately declining, Ren Suo didn’t want to go home too early today, so he agreed and took the subway with Qiao Muyi to the sports center in Tianhe District.

"We agreed to meet at seven-thirty; there’s still time, shall we grab something to eat first?" Qiao Muyi suggested.

Ren Suo had no objections, so the two of them casually picked a Kaifeng Cuisine fast-food restaurant to eat Kaifeng fried chicken.

While eating, Ren Suo had a preoccupied expression and lacked enthusiasm. Qiao Muyi inquired, "What’s the matter, need any help?"

I’m considering whether or not to ’chop off my hands’... Ren Suo glanced at Qiao Muyi and offhandedly said, "Do you want to help?"

"Hmm?" Qiao Muyi had only asked casually. Noticing Ren Suo seemed to be taking it seriously, she shook her head. "It depends on what it is... With our level of friendship, I can help you with up to 500 yuan. It’s fine if you don’t repay me, but from then on, we’d be strangers."

"500 yuan?" Ren Suo was taken aback.

Qiao Muyi said, "Yes, that’s how I categorize friends. 500 yuan means that’s the most I would lend you. If you don’t pay me back, it’s fine, but our friendship ends there."

"Your way of evaluating friendship is quite straightforward..." Ren Suo asked, "What about Wei Shaojun?"

"1,250, I guess," Qiao Muyi said. "So, how much were you thinking of borrowing?"

She can even be precise to the tens digit... Ren Suo shook his head. "Well, it doesn’t really concern you, but if you really want to know..."

"I don’t," Qiao Muyi said bluntly, delivering a verbal ’critical hit’ to Ren Suo. "It’s almost time, we should go... over..."

As Qiao Muyi was speaking, she suddenly swayed. If Ren Suo hadn’t reacted quickly enough to support her, she would have definitely fallen to the ground.

"I..." Qiao Muyi’s face was extremely pale, and Ren Suo felt a reactive force from his hands that jolted him away from her.

Qiao Muyi had activated ’Clothing’!

’Clothing,’ theoretically capable of dispelling all negative statuses, seemed to have no effect. Qiao Muyi sat on the chair, her face covered in cold sweat. She held onto the table for support for a dozen seconds before her eyes closed and she fainted.

"What’s happened?"

"Should we call for an ambulance?"

Customers at a nearby table saw Qiao Muyi, a living, breathing person, suddenly pass out and quickly said these things.

Ren Suo realized the severity of the situation in a flash. He hoisted up Qiao Muyi, rushed downstairs, hailed a taxi, and directly gave the address of Lianjiang Medical University Affiliated Third Hospital.

The driver asked, "Is this an emergency? But it will take at least an hour to get there. Why not go to a nearby hospital first?"

Ren Suo said, "It’s a relapse of an old ailment, and only that hospital has the imported healing equipment from abroad. Please hurry over there!"

Ren Suo knew in his heart that Qiao Muyi had definitely suffered some kind of Spiritual Energy injury; ordinary hospitals were of no use. Only that specialized research hospital for Cultivators and Awakeners might save Qiao Muyi’s life!

Construction site, wailing, sudden death...

Although he didn’t know if it was caused by the crying at the construction site, it almost certainly was. Qiao Muyi had activated ’Clothing,’ but it couldn’t defend against it, indicating the mysterious force hidden at the construction site was no ordinary supernatural event.

Simply put, they might have been taking on a challenge beyond their level just now.

On the way to the hospital, Ren Suo notified You Jilong about Qiao Muyi’s condition. You Jilong immediately said he would notify the hospital and that the Longhui Building construction site incident would be handed over to Tactical Teams One and Two.

Thanks to a frantic journey, and fortunately because Qiao Muyi, as a Cultivator, had some resistance, she still had a faint breath left when they reached the hospital. Doctors and nurses, already waiting at the entrance, quickly lifted Qiao Muyi onto a stretcher and rushed her into the hospital for First Aid.

Ren Suo wanted to follow, but the doctor he knew, Yao Meilü, stopped him. "Don’t worry, there’ll be no issue once she’s here. Even though this patient’s case is very rare, we have seen similar ones before and have a comprehensive Healing plan. Cultivators like you are not allowed inside the hospital unless you are ill."

Seeing the professional medical expert Yao Meilü so confident and serious, Ren Suo had no reason not to trust her. Besides, he had little desire to enter the hospital, a place where Spiritual Energy dissipated...

At that moment, he received another call from You Jilong:

"Tactical Team Two has already sent people to investigate the construction site, and the investigation is ongoing," You Jilong said. "The team members who entered the construction site today were you, Qiao Muyi, Wei Shaojun, and Chen Kun. The Deputy Bureau Chief has instructed that, aside from Qiao Muyi who is hospitalized, the remaining three of you will temporarily join Tactical Team Two to work with them on this case."

You Jilong gave Ren Suo the phone number of Lv Luo, the deputy leader of Tactical Team Two, and mentioned, "You’re being asked to continue on this case because the Deputy Bureau Chief thinks you might possess some special information. Don’t worry, Tactical Team Two will likely only need your assistance with the investigation and won’t have you do much actual work."

Ren Suo took the same taxi back to the city center, calling Lv Luo’s number on the way.

"Hello, is this Deputy Leader Lv Luo from Tactical Team Two? I’m Ren Suo from Tactical Team Three..."

Lv Luo interrupted, "You’re Ren Suo? Good. Despite the Deputy Bureau Chief’s orders, Tactical Team Two doesn’t need your assistance."

Ren Suo was taken aback. "But..."

"Inform the other two as well. In short, don’t come and bother us. Tactical Team Two will resolve this incident perfectly. That’s all."

Ren Suo stared at his phone in confusion.

So, they really don’t want us doing any work.

They’re flat-out telling us not to do any work at all.

Ren Suo relayed the message to the other two and sank into perplexity:

Team Three is sending me to Team Two for work, but Team Two doesn’t need me. So... am I on vacation now?

When Ren Suo got home, it was already past 11 p.m.

He immediately turned on the Minor World Game Console and opened the ’Content Preservation Vault.’

It was empty except for two Keys.

’One-Star Wind Blade Key’ and ’One-Star Resentment Key’!

The former he had obtained from the middle school student Wu Jianming, and the latter he had just acquired from Qiao Muyi!

Ren Suo had rushed to the hospital with Qiao Muyi in his arms, a journey of about an hour. Moreover, Qiao Muyi was in a state of Sleep. Although he hadn’t intended it, halfway through the journey, he had already met the time requirement to obtain Qiao Muyi’s Key!

This was an unexpected gain, though Qiao Muyi’s misfortune today was the underlying reason...

He checked the time. It was now 11:30 PM.

There were only 15 minutes left until midnight.

To buy or not to buy? To buy or not to buy?

If he missed today, there would be no discount!

Ren Suo had insomnia last night and was drowsy and distracted all day today, all because he was debating whether to splurge or not!

To buy? Or not to buy?

11:40 PM.

Ren Suo looked at the screen and decided to flip a coin, letting Destiny decide whether to buy or not. Heads for buy, tails for not.

Ren Suo flicked the coin with his thumb. As he watched it fall, he suddenly snatched it out of the air.

He took a deep breath, and a trace of relief crossed his face.

The moment he flipped the coin, Ren Suo already knew his answer.

Ren Suo was, after all, a Player. Merit Points could be earned later, but discounts weren’t available every day! More importantly, he really wanted that exclusive reward!

I’ll buy it!

Though he decided to buy, Ren Suo rapidly opened "Over My Dead Body" and chose to upload a save.

If Merit Points aren’t enough, rewards will have to do!