Moving Things Forward

After the plan was agreed upon, word of it was released.

The three announcements caused an uproar throughout the base. People began speculating about what lay behind the plans and what each one was meant to achieve.

According to the announcement, the events would take place in order: the Martial Arts Tournament, the Social Mixer, and the County Road Development Plan.

The tentative dates were May 4 for the Martial Arts Tournament, May 10 for the Social Mixer, and May 21 for the road development plan.

The Martial Arts Tournament was tentatively scheduled to last three days. Everyone in the base could come watch, helping to build excitement for the Social Mixer.

And so, amid everyone's anticipation, the Martial Arts Tournament finally began.

The winner would become captain of the newly established base Security Team and join the Base High-Level Meeting as a participant, with a degree of speaking and voting power. This made the tournament extremely appealing to all the Martial Artists.

The Base High-Level Meeting consisted of the original Board of Directors members, the heads of every department, and the deputy captains of the squads directly under each base. All major decisions made by the base had to be reviewed by the meeting's members, giving them considerable power.

Nearly all the members of the eight Exploration Teams took part in the tournament.

As in previous years, the tournament was divided into two events: the Individual Competition and the Team Competition.

The Individual Competition was simply a series of one-on-one matches to determine the rankings, with points awarded according to each competitor's placement.

In the Team Competition, contestants faced off in groups of three. The top ten finishers in the Individual Competition could not form teams. If even one member of a group stepped outside the ring, the group lost, and points were awarded according to its final placement.

The winner was whoever had the highest combined score from the two events.

As expected, the Individual Competition ended just as everyone had predicted: the eight team captains took the top eight places, and two of them demonstrated a level of skill slightly beyond that of an Advanced Warrior.

The Team Competition, however, was full of surprises. Some groups tried to knock one opponent out of the ring together, only to be knocked out themselves. Others attempted a sneak attack and got ambushed instead, while some tried to trick their opponents into stepping out of bounds but stumbled out themselves.

In short, the many different ways people lost had everyone laughing.

In the end, Ren Tingchen, former captain of the Third Exploration Team, won the position of Security Team captain. He was also one of the two who had demonstrated a level of skill beyond that of an Advanced Warrior.

After the tournament ended, the Social Mixer, eagerly awaited by the young Martial Artists from the various squads, finally arrived.

When people learned that both Lin Chenxing and Xi Qing had confirmed they would attend, the Martial Artists and the young men and women from the base who had signed up were thrilled.

Lin Chenxing was admired by most of the women in the base. Despite his youth and lack of any particular advantages to start with, he had become a key figure in such a large organization through hard work and intelligence. Everyone thought he was exceptional, and he had always seemed untouchable. They never imagined someone so outstanding would attend a Social Mixer, and they were eager to see how he would behave in that setting.

Xi Qing had led dozens of people to survive in Chuilong Town and make it to the Xingyan Group base, making her an exceptionally capable woman. On top of that, she had become a member of one of the base's Elite Squads. Unfortunately, people had almost no chance to interact with her in their daily lives.

When the two arrived together at the Social Mixer, the venue erupted in a warm welcome.

Lin Chenxing was still in his wheelchair, and Xi Qing, as before, silently pushed him over to their seats.

Li Yueqi was hosting the Social Mixer. To liven things up, he prepared all kinds of masks for the opening activity. After announcing the names of everyone present, he asked each person to write a name on the mask they held. The name could belong to anyone at the venue. Once the masks were collected, they were shuffled and handed out again. Each person then wrote another name on the front of the mask they had received.

The masks were collected once more. Li Yueqi then read aloud the names on the front and back of each mask. If the names matched, the person whose name was written on it would come up onstage and wait for the next activity.

Of the seventy-three masks, six had Lin Chenxing's name on them. Two had Xi Qing's name on both sides, and three other people each had one mask with the same name written on both sides.

The second round was the embarrassing round. Everyone in the audience drew lots to praise one of the people onstage, using just one word. Those onstage could ask the person praising them to tell the story behind it. If they couldn't answer, they had to eat one of the special snacks prepared for the Social Mixer. If they could answer, the person onstage had to eat one.

After everyone had taken part once, the third round began: a heart-to-heart gift exchange. Each participant had to prepare a small gift in a homemade box ahead of time. The gifts were mixed together with the little surprise gifts prepared by the organizers, numbered, and placed onstage. Everyone drew a gift, then had the chance to exchange it with someone else. Exchanges had to be one-on-one, and each person could exchange only once.

Lin Chenxing noticed that quite a few people wanted to exchange gifts with him. Since he had no plans to find a partner for now, he began looking for a way out. Then he glanced at Xi Qing and saw her looking awkwardly at her gift. He decided to swap with her, even though he had already realized that the gift in Xi Qing's hands was probably one of the so-called surprise gifts Li Yueqi and the others had prepared.

Although Lin Chenxing and Xi Qing hadn't particularly enjoyed the Social Mixer, quite a few participants had arranged to meet again and talk in more detail. The plan could be considered a great success.

The two plans had been put into action, and Gao Zheng and He Qishun, who had been watching for changes within the base, finally spotted a clue.

Ren Tingchen, who had won the tournament, had already started carrying out his duties. He invited members of the other seven squads to join the base Security Team. After the squad captains invited him to a gathering that ended on bad terms, they began complaining to the directors one after another, demanding that Ren Tingchen stop.

After the Social Mixer, the squad captains also began meeting much more frequently. Quite a few of them used the room in the karaoke lounge that had been bugged.

The more people talked, the easier it was to let something slip.

From their observations, three squad captains had mentioned something related to masks in their conversations, and they had been complaining about questions concerning the masks at the Social Mixer.

It had been an ordinary Social Mixer. Though masks had been used, they shouldn't have been a major topic of conversation. This struck Gao Zheng and He Qishun as suspicious.

Through continued analysis, they also picked up another keyword in the conversations: "Jester." It was a strange word, and they deduced that it was very likely the name of the organization those people had formed.

At last, they had caught their opponents slipping.

Whether they could take them all down in one fell swoop depended on the final plan. Lin Chenxing and the others were confident they could pull it off.