After seeing the Containment Team off, Cheng Ye went back into the Isolation Pod and carefully checked it over once more, deep in thought.
The high-pressure hoses had washed down Isolation Chamber 48, and within minutes, the smell of blood had dissipated.
Only a few tiny holes eaten into the walls by Corrupt Vine Sap silently bore witness to the battle that had taken place.
"Transcendent."
After leaving the Isolation Pod, he took several deep breaths, but the pounding in his Chest Cavity still refused to subside.
The complicated emotions in his mind seemed to be splitting apart, too.
Three parts shock at learning the truth about the Transcendent, three parts intense longing for their abilities, and three parts fear of the unknown secrets.
And one part was a quietly growing desire to uncover the Wasteland's deeper secrets.
"Did humanity bury its past and sever ties with the Old Era to avoid a disaster caused by digging too deep, or are they secretly repeating the same mistakes, continuing to study 'harmless' S-5?"
Following that line of thought, Cheng Ye dared not think any further.
The Infected were already difficult enough to deal with. If something even more terrifying were truly unleashed, the Wasteland, which seemed to be recovering, might instantly fall back into the brutal apocalypse it had once been.
Besides, one part of Qin Feng's explanation didn't add up.
If they were certain the S-4 outbreak was over, why would Transcendents need to hide? They could simply step forward and prove it.
But they were keeping such a low profile. There had to be something else going on that no one knew about.
"If I can find a Transcendent ability..."
"I could equip it when I need it and remove it right away when I don't. I wonder if that would let me avoid the effects of S-4?"
After a little "genius" pondering, Cheng Ye finally forced all his desires back down.
It was right that these secrets weren't shared with Interns.
Even someone as powerful as Brother B, a Fourth Stage Inspector, had never once mentioned Transcendents to him.
Before reaching the required level of strength, learning about this too early would only make people overreach—or even lead them astray.
"Those who were on shift last night probably haven't gone to sleep yet, right?"
"No. The alarm woke everyone up just now, and they're calming the other people in the Isolation Pods."
"All right. Have them gather in a bit. I have something to say."
Cheng Ye sent Raven to gather all the staff and guards, then turned to Owl.
Owl had just come back from the brink of death. More than ten minutes had passed, but he was still shaken. At least he had recovered from the dazed state he'd been in at first.
"You're so scared. How did you become an Observer?"
"Sir."
Owl gave a bitter smile. "I thought I was done for. I never imagined you'd save me."
"I'm not made of wood. How could I just stand by and watch one of my own get killed?"
Cheng Ye was a little exasperated.
Perhaps in Owl's and Raven's eyes, what he'd just done made him an oddity among the Inspectors.
But he knew that saving someone had simply been an instinctive reaction.
In the Wasteland, where people preyed on one another, even that little bit of "instinct" had become a rare source of decency.
"Thank you, sir."
Owl spoke softly and said no more, but a burning light had kindled in his eyes.
Seeing that, Cheng Ye couldn't help shaking his head with a laugh. He knew Owl had engraved the debt of his life in his heart.
That was rare, and it gave Cheng Ye something to think about.
To establish himself at the Checkpoint, Cheng Long's connections alone wouldn't be nearly enough. In the end, he would have to gradually cultivate his own trusted people.
Owl had that potential.
If they could make it through the East-West Faction's power struggle this time, starting with Owl might be a good choice.
"By the way, is there someone named Arthur at the station?"
Thinking of the man Liu Bi had mentioned before he left, Cheng Ye asked curiously.
He had never planned to pin his hopes of survival on someone else, but Liu Bi's claim that Arthur could save his life had made him curious about who the man was.
"Arthur? There are quite a few people called Arthur at the station. Who do you mean, sir?"
"Arthur Amir."
"Oh, you mean Arthur the Machine Gunner!" Owl pointed toward Zone F. "He's on duty in the watchtower beyond the Isolation Passage."
Following Owl's pointing finger, Cheng Ye turned and looked. A figure holding a gun was faintly visible between the metal railings of the watchtower beyond the Isolation Passage.
Cheng Ye understood at once. No wonder Liu Bi had said the man could save his life.
Machine Gunners had a higher standing at the Checkpoint than Observers like Owl, second only to Inspectors.
More importantly, as part of the station's core defensive force, Machine Gunners answered directly to the Station Chief. Inspectors had no authority to give them orders.
With a special position like that, free of such restrictions, he could naturally lend a hand in certain situations.
"Looks like I should find time to meet him. If an Infected I can't handle gets in, he might buy me some time to escape."
Keeping that in mind, Cheng Ye waited where he was for a while.
Since he would be on duty in Quarantine Zone A for the next week, it was worth making sure the station's guards and staff knew his face.
But that was all.
"I'm here to do only three things: find Infected, kill Infected, and earn Contribution Points!"
"I won't send you on missions that'll get you killed, but in return, no one gets to slack off."
"If I catch you slacking even once—even if it's your first time—you're out of this Checkpoint."
"All right, that's it. If you haven't slept, go catch up now. Those coming on shift, keep your eyes peeled!"
After saying those four things, Cheng Ye dismissed everyone.
As they dispersed, some muttered under their breath while others exclaimed in surprise, but most were simply curious.
Cheng Ye's rough-and-ready manner fit their stereotype of an Inspector from Dongren.
But was Cheng Ye really a roughneck?
No one thought so.
Raven had already revealed that Raul had personally brought this Inspector from Dongren and specifically told everyone to take him seriously.
Besides, being able to spot an Infected among hundreds at a glance and determine with just a few words that the person had been infected—
That kind of professional skill was what truly gave an Inspector a foothold at a Checkpoint.
"Don't just stand there. We've still got another warehouse to check, right?"
"Oh, right! Yes!"
Raven and Owl both jolted, only now realizing that this Inspector hadn't even had a chance to visit the Quarantine Area. He'd run into an Infected in an Isolation Pod first.
What terrible luck!
"Each full duty rotation assigns two Observers and ten staff members to assist the Inspector, along with twenty Patrol Police to monitor the people in isolation and fight back if they encounter an Infected."
"If anyone dies, the station replaces them the next day. We won't be short-staffed."
Standing in front of the entrance to Warehouse 2, Cheng Ye caught a faint, rancid odor mixed with the distinctive sweaty smell of Xiren.
He peered inside.
To be fair, the Checkpoint had given these people decent accommodations.
Although the beds were bunk beds, each one had been specially adjusted to be one and a half meters wide and two meters long, making them unusually spacious.
A solid wood table, similar in style to the ones in the Survival Library, stood in the middle of every four bunk beds.
There was also a small cabinet beside each bed, giving everyone their own storage space.
Even by Cheng Ye's modern standards, it was better than some university dorms with eight or ten people to a room.
"All right, let's head to the Isolation Inspection Area up ahead."
Having gotten a general idea of how the Quick Checkpoint operated, Cheng Ye felt a little relieved.
There was good news and bad news.
The good news was that although the Quarantine Area was dangerous, the situation there was generally under control, so he didn't need to worry too much.
The bad news was that the Inspector casualty rate at the Quick Checkpoint was so high that the Isolation Inspection Area must be far more dangerous than he had first imagined.
Farther along, the front half of the Quarantine Area was separated once more by iron plates and wire mesh.
Cheng Ye reached out to touch them, and his heart tightened. The material wasn't ordinary steel, but the same special alloy as the ground.
It had simply been coated with paint to make it look like steel.
"Could it be meant to fool the Infected?"
Some special Infected could corrode steel, but Xingfu City hadn't found a single case that could corrode this special alloy.
After passing through three alloy doors in a row, Raven stopped.
"Inspector, this is the Isolation Inspection Area where you'll be working."
The so-called Isolation Inspection Area looked a lot like one of the fenced-in basketball courts used for paid games in city squares back before Cheng Ye had crossed over.
The square space was barely three hundred square meters, with a yellow line dividing the ground in two:
One half was the Inspector's area, and the other belonged to the people being inspected.
There was an alloy table in each area.
Like the setup at the Central Main Checkpoint, the table in the inspection area held various testing instruments, while the table in the Inspector's area was for storing personal items.
The only difference was that this one had three extra buttons on the tabletop.
"This is your worktable," Raven explained, pointing at it. "The button on the far left controls the door behind you. The middle button controls the entrance for outsiders. The one on the far right locks the doors. Once you press it, the station will immediately send a rescue team, but neither door can be opened by any means until they arrive."
After he finished, Raven paused and took the Defense Communicator from his belt. "This button on the side is the call button. Just press it, and I'll hear you."
"Yeah, I know that."
With his near-perfect score on the Intern exam, Cheng Ye was naturally familiar with these basic facilities.
Standing here,
He could clearly see through the wire mesh the yellow line outside the Station Chief Office, as well as the armed passage used to direct the crowds.
Because of the heavy rain, more than a dozen people were currently waiting for the passage to open in Zone B, which handled Scavengers and ordinary refugees.
Meanwhile, Zone A, which inspected convoys, was empty.
"Under what circumstances would I need to open the Isolation door and cross the yellow line?"
Cheng Ye asked the question that concerned him most.
Since Towns had said it was safe as long as he didn't cross the yellow line, that proved there had to be something extremely dangerous beyond it!
Raven and Owl exchanged a glance, then Owl stepped forward.
"There's only one situation in which you'd need to cross the yellow line."
"If an Inner City Lord on an active mission is attacked within three kilometers of the Checkpoint and sends a distress signal, the Checkpoint will order all four Inspectors on duty to immediately cross the yellow line and carry out a rescue!"
Before you continue