Storms and the Reckoning

"Captain, there's news of the Sophist again."

The fast-moving man had barely entered before dropping the bombshell.

Hearing this, Xia Qin continued quietly sorting through the statements on her desk. She remained remarkably calm.

"How many times has this been now?"

"The sixth. This time, he was in the City Center. Two witnesses saw him performing traditional storytelling in the plaza. Our people staged a fake robbery to break up the crowd gathering around him. Someone from Team Two is still tailing him. I've already advised him to keep his distance. Safety first—losing him is fine."

"Well done. He's appearing more and more frequently. Until reinforcements arrive, we won't bite the bait."

Lu PingAn could guess certain things; how could these Professional Keepers fail to do the same?

After pooling and organizing the intelligence in their hands, they instead lost interest in the increasingly active Sophist.

A cultist of at least Tier 4 was indeed troublesome, but mobilizing forces within the city to eliminate him would not be difficult.

The problem was that he most likely had someone behind him.

"Has it been confirmed that he joined the Mother Goddess-aligned Life Church?"

"Yes, confirmed. There were also witness reports: when he entered the city, he wasn't alone."

If another evil god ritual like the previous one happened... If Lu PingAn had not stopped everything in time, Chris would have dragged the city's several million residents into that deadly ritual.

When it truly came time to act, only a concentrated thunderous strike could guarantee a kill.

During this contest of patience, the police and official Keepers who encountered the "bait" were actually in the greatest danger.

When fish refused to bite for too long, clumsy and impatient anglers often tried to provoke the Fish Swarm with baited hooks.

Fortunately, only a few days had passed since the last Blood Case, and the Sophist had not committed another crime.

But how much longer he could remain quiet was another question.

The Keepers only hoped that, as bait, he would not be too proactive and make things difficult for everyone.

"...The matter of the Mother Goddess has been reported to several churches of Life-type deities. They'll send several chief-priest-level reinforcements. The most important among them is a Tier 6 bishop from the Maiden of the Forest Church. He'll be bringing his guards."

"Good."

This was undoubtedly good news, but Xia Qin also knew that the High-Level Professionals from those usually arrogant churches were not coming to aid the city currently under threat.

"...The Mother Goddess, and Kerdales. Heh, they really are being direct."

At the thought of the previous quasi-god incident, every Keeper present wore an unpleasant expression.

Because of that accident, the Third Special Task Force had been crippled and could not replenish its personnel. It still had only three members.

Yet their workload had multiplied several times over. Naturally, they were busy to the point of exhaustion.

"Oh, right. How is Lu PingAn? You should have run into him. Is he emotionally stable? After all, he's gotten himself into a huge mess, and the college entrance exams are only two days away."

Lei Huo Ren's expression became even stranger.

"He's incredibly happy. His mood is like he just got back from an Amusement Park—no, even more intense. It feels like he's high."

Xia Qin rubbed her forehead, feeling helpless.

"Just a few more days. I hope he doesn't cause me any more trouble. You have no idea how badly the higher-ups chewed me out. 'Is this how you supervise people? A female gorilla would be more useful than you!' Fine, I told them to replace me with someone else, and then they stopped talking. They only dare to yell at me."

Even Captain Xia, normally decisive and dashing, had begun to ramble. While complaining about her heartless superiors, she rubbed her stomach.

Developing habitual stomach pain at her age really was rather miserable.

"They also never mention that the Sophist's case has been dumped on my head, along with the daily patrols. I haven't gone home for a proper night's sleep in a week."

It seemed that, having only recently taken the post, she was under truly enormous pressure.

"...Strange. Didn't you come here to complain? To laugh at me for being so confident before, only to make a mess so quickly and have to run around calling in favors to clean up after that brat?"

Lei Huo Ren merely shook his head calmly.

"No. I've changed my mind. What you did was right. He's still extremely dangerous, but from that one incident, it was clear that he has empathy. He's different from the Sophist."

In truth, Lei Huo Ren was lying. Deep down, he thought Lu PingAn was even more dangerous than expected, even harder to understand and predict than the Sophist.

Beneath that seemingly gentle, smiling face lay a willful heart. He could tell that the Young Man had no bottom line at all.

Yet compared to a true madman, Lu PingAn's usual gentleness and restraint—the reality that this broken gear still operated steadily within society's machine—made Lei Huo Ren, who knew the truth, feel even more uneasy.

But hearing Lei Huo Ren agree with her at this moment, Xia Qin let out a sigh of relief.

This time, she had been under tremendous pressure.

If the only other two members of the team had also pressured her, she truly might not have been able to endure being squeezed from both inside and out.

"...Besides, he's Tier 1 now. It's only been ten days in total. Ten days ago, he was just an ordinary person. At least five days ago, he was still Tier 0."

This was the true reason Lei Huo Ren had changed his mind. Lu PingAn had grown too quickly—so quickly that others could not comprehend it.

But when he thought of that bizarre "Investment Profit Sharing" ability, it seemed somewhat acceptable.

Lei Huo Ren did not know what price Lu PingAn paid for his "investments," but with effects this good and returns this high, the burden had to be immense.

"As long as he keeps making 'Investment Profit Sharing' investments, he'll grow very quickly. He might even become combat-ready in half a year."

In these increasingly chaotic times, what law enforcers needed most was always strength.

When villains ran rampant, words and laws without the power to back them up meant nothing.

Now that a Sophist and a possible major cult figure behind him had appeared, they had to seek aid from other churches and organizations. That alone showed just how desperately short-handed they were.

He still remembered the reply to the report he had submitted. It had been realistic enough to leave one helpless.

"What? You're saying there might be an evil god incident involving Tier 6 or above? And there's supposedly a cultist around Tier 4 active in your area? But several cities around you are dealing with confirmed incidents above Tier 6. All available personnel have been deployed there. I don't have anyone here either. How about this—should I, a retired old man, come over and help with logistics? Ease some of the pressure?"

The increasingly frequent Pollution Incidents had made being short-staffed the norm. A mere possibility was not enough to summon reinforcements.

The daily work of Keepers had gradually shifted from traditional "prevention" to the far more dangerous and frequent "post-incident cleanup."

The system had already begun to reform, but it seemed unable to keep up.

Everywhere lacked manpower. It was a cruel reality, and an even more unsettling sign.

Once the official forces of control were genuinely called into question, social order would naturally begin to collapse. In fact, many churches, companies, and social organizations had long since gone their own way, becoming independent kingdoms centered around Secret Realms.

They did not need to bear the bottomless costs of social governance. They only had to take responsibility for the parts within their own "territory," while turning the resources of the Secret Realms into fuel for their growth. Instead, they had become even more prosperous than they had been decades ago.

When no one else could be relied upon, the official Keepers, whose core duty was protection, could only depend on whatever strength they could grasp at their side.

"Yeah. It's only been a little over a week, and he's already a Tier 1 Gardener. That's way too fast."

".What? Wait, isn't he a Tier 1 Runner? I sensed it."

"Huh? He's still a Tier 1 Runner? He has two professions? And he even produced a Tier 2 magic plant? This..."

The two Professional Keepers looked at each other. This could no longer be explained as simply growing quickly.

He had crossed a road that should have taken at least a year in half a month. That was practically using some absurdly overpowered cheat.

"Too abnormal. Should we write a report?"

Lei Huo Ren asked instinctively, only to see Xia Qin yawn.

"Too busy. No time. We'll write it when we're free."

You'll have free time? Oh. Got it.

Special Task Force Three reached an internal agreement. In this dangerous world, if they wanted to live well, perhaps they could not be quite so honest.

Every Special Task Force was short on people. They had already submitted countless reports, yet reinforcements were always still on the way.

Given Third Squad's situation and connections, they did not even know how many Student Soldiers they would be able to snatch next year.

If Lu PingAn really was a player with cheats, the two people on his side only hoped that his hack would not get patched.

".I just hope he behaves himself. Only two days left. Once he enters the school, I can hand him over to someone else for supervision. That'll be one less thing on my plate. Then I'll have more time to investigate the Sophist. Hehe, maybe I can even get a good night's sleep and catch up on some shows."

But at that moment, the phone on the desk rang.

Lei Huo Ren answered it. After only two sentences, he looked at Captain Xia with sympathy.

".Captain, we just received word. After Lu PingAn left us, he went straight to the Forest Secret Realm—the one belonging to Green New Company. Captain, what's wrong with you?! Don't scare me!"

Poor Xia Qin clutched her chest, nearly unable to catch her breath.

"Lu PingAn! You promised me!! You little bastard who can't keep his word!"

"Ah-choo!"

Lu PingAn sneezed and felt that some beautiful woman might be thinking about him.

He walked down that familiar street. Some people were still sorting through the remnants of the explosion, clearing away the unsettling rubble.

The moment he appeared, he drew countless gazes, along with people pointing and whispering behind his back.

Ignoring all the noise around him, he yawned and walked straight toward the end of the street.

Green New Company's former storefront was there—but he walked right past it.

This time, he truly was not here to cause trouble. There were simply some matters he had to handle in person.

He touched the door to the Secret Realm, and the Life Bank system began operating.

Connecting to the Tier 1 Secret Realm, 'Three Ring Forest.' Settlement for the host's Secret Realm journey will be postponed. Please wait.

This was the real reason Lu PingAn had returned.

"Settlement can be postponed?"

When he had stepped out of the Secret Realm gate and proactively settled with the Secret Realm, he had unexpectedly received an evaluation.

A message from the Secret Realm Master (virtual personality of the Maiden of the Forest): Not enough, not enough, truly not enough. And that utterly disgusting Dark Green Vine Beard Monster. Are you selling it? I'll offer a good price.

When Lu PingAn saw the overall rating of D along with that message, he was completely dumbfounded. He asked instinctively.

"Actually, the performance I expected isn't over yet. It's near the entrance to the Secret Realm, and you should be able to sense it as well."

The Secret Realm Master proposes postponing the settlement of the host's training. The settlement will automatically occur upon the host's next arrival at the Secret Realm entrance. Do you agree to postpone it?

It could even do something like this? The timing of settlement could be negotiated? Lu PingAn was confused and uneasy, but Chris resolved his doubts with a single sentence.

".The Life Bank's rank is far higher than that of this low-tier Secret Realm. More importantly, they are the Same Kind."

Now Lu PingAn understood. Humans could not reason or communicate with machines, but AI and AI were another matter entirely.

"No wonder they said earlier that they would send rule-type ability users into the secret realm to scout the way. I had no reason to refuse that suggestion."

When a rule-type encountered another rule-type, only by analyzing each other, turning consciousness into language and demands into rules, could they achieve this so-called "communication."

And so, when Lu PingAn truly completed everything and returned here, the settlement occurred naturally.

Delayed settlement has begun. First-tier secret realm 'Three Ring Forest' has been completed. Lu PingAn's overall evaluation is DS (the secret realm master was satisfied with your performance and raised your evaluation). Further settlement will now begin. Please wait.

"It can work like that?! The evaluation jumped that many ranks at once?! Just how badly did you want to watch these people die? Weren't they members of your church?"