Conversation

"I more or less understand," Sun Hang replied.

"Oh, right, about the Tianfu City Management Committee... If they come looking for you, just tell them you're unwell and refuse to see visitors. They probably wouldn't dare force their way into an Anomaly Hunter's residence. If those people really get desperate, hide in the research institute. With my teacher there, they definitely won't touch you," Yang Qi emphasized again.

"Do you really not need my help over in the south of the city? I feel like the Blood Moon doesn't seem to affect me much. If it comes down to it, Wang Xiyi can stay at the research institute, and I'll go over."

Sun Hang had a fairly favorable impression of Yang Qi, the person directly in charge—he could tell that she genuinely cared about him, rather than treating him as a "tool" for fighting anomalies.

The Management Committee might not use coercive measures against Anomaly Hunters, but they would definitely pressure Yang Qi again and again. Sun Hang knew perfectly well that the only reason he could stroll around so leisurely right now was because Yang Qi had shouldered all that pressure for him.

It wasn't that he truly wanted to search for those missing people. He simply couldn't stand seeing those incompetent people use the authority in their hands to force a woman into doing something.

The source of all this was that flower-laying ceremony, which had been more of a publicity stunt than anything meaningful. And now that an accident had occurred, they wanted to use even more lives to clean up the mess.

What they considered wasn't the damage and impact the anomalies might cause, but how to handle this matter in a way that would minimize its effect on their own political careers.

"No, the risk is too great." Yang Qi refused decisively. "You just devoured the 'Grand Sui,' and you're still in the 'digestion period'... If you're affected by the Blood Moon at a time like this, the consequences will be difficult to predict..."

"Digestion period? That's a thing?"

"You devoured the Grand Sui's meme, but before you fully integrate those memes with yourself, they could backlash at any moment. In other words, the Grand Sui could 'revive' inside your body," Yang Qi said in the message. "All right, don't bring this up again. Once the Blood Moon disappears, I'll naturally notify you to return to the mission. What you need to do now is remain on standby at all times."

The taxi stopped at the north gate of the Tianfu City Anomaly Research Institute. Before he had even gotten out, Sun Hang saw a group of people unloading the container holding the Aberrant Long Blade from an all-terrain transport vehicle. The one-eyed female researcher was standing nearby as well, clutching her tablet tightly to her chest.

"I should've just hitched a ride..." Sun Hang muttered under his breath. He paid the fare and hopped out of the taxi.

However, before Sun Hang could reach the parking lot, two professional bodyguards in black suits and dark sunglasses stopped him.

"Mr. Sun Hang, someone would like to have a chat with you," one of the bodyguards said politely.

"Chat with me? Who?" Sun Hang glanced at them. "If it's not a pretty girl, then I'll have to decline."

"It's Committee Member Lu Hongming of the Tianfu City Management Committee." The other bodyguard held out his palm and made a gesture of invitation.

A very low-key black sedan was parked nearby. Its rear door was half open, and he could vaguely make out someone sitting in the back seat.

"If I remember correctly, the Tianfu City Management Committee has no authority to order Anomaly Hunters around, does it?" Sun Hang narrowed his eyes.

"We have no intention of giving you any orders. Committee Member Lu merely wishes to have a chat with you. Just a chat."

The bodyguards were exceedingly respectful. Since one didn't slap a smiling face, Sun Hang found it difficult to lose his temper. He could only say coldly, "Sorry, I'm in a hurry. Could you move aside? As for chatting, if it's only a chat, then any time would do, wouldn't it?"

"We've already informed the research institute," the bodyguard said.

"So this is the wheelchair-bound old man's idea?" Sun Hang asked.

"The director of the research institute has given us ten minutes." The bodyguard made the inviting gesture again.

"Fine, ten minutes it is." Sun Hang strode toward the black sedan, and the two bodyguards immediately pulled open the half-closed door for him.

Only then did Sun Hang realize that the person seated in the back was a fully armed soldier. As for the person who wanted to speak with him—the actual host—he was seated in the front passenger seat.

"Mr. Sun Hang, hello. This is our first meeting. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Lu Hongming, a committee member of the Tianfu City Management Committee." The middle-aged man in a gray suit, with thinning hair, turned around from the front passenger seat and spoke to Sun Hang in a mild tone.

"Are you afraid of me?" Sun Hang pointed at the fully armed soldier beside him and asked with a smile.

"Merely necessary security measures. Please don't mind them." Lu Hongming's expression did not change. "This time, I invited you here..."

"It's about the South City Public Cemetery, right?" Sun Hang cut him off and got straight to the point.

"That's right. Since you already understand why I'm here, then surely you understand the seriousness of this matter as well?" Lu Hongming asked in return.

"Seriousness? To be honest, I'm not too sure... Will Tianfu City turn into a complete mess without those people?"

"The city's order can still be maintained for the time being, but as time passes, the situation will only worsen... If only one or two people had gone missing, we could still remedy it. But this time, we lost so many key personnel at once. Our administrative agencies are currently operating under an excessive load and could collapse at any moment."

"Don't you have contingency plans? If nothing else, have the Federation airdrop a batch of people to hold things down. Are living people really going to be stumped to death by a lack of options?" Sun Hang asked, feigning confusion.

"You've never participated in the management and operation of a city, so it's only natural that you don't understand all the finer details... A city as large as Tianfu City is like a precision machine. Every person is an indispensable gear in that machine. If one day, more than half the gears in that machine suddenly disappeared, what do you think would happen?"

"Why not replace them with a new set of gears?"

"Many job handovers cannot be completed with a simple transfer order. The longer it drags on, the more work accumulates, and the harder the handover becomes... By now, the backlog has become impossible to resolve."

"Oh, so you want me to return to the anomalous zone?"

"Compared with Night Fiend, you are more important—after all, you are the one who resonated with the 'anomaly.'"

"But the order I received was to remain where I was."

"No, I need to correct that. It was 'stand by freely,' not 'remain where you are.' You have complete freedom to decide whether to investigate the South City Public Cemetery area."

"What if I refuse?"