Pushing Forward

Once the plans were finalized, the news was released.

These three announcements caused an immediate uproar throughout the base, with everyone speculating on what lay behind these proposals and what their respective purposes might be.

According to the published details, the events would proceed in the order of the Martial Arts Tournament, the Social Mixer, and the County Road Development Plan.

The tentative dates were set for May 4th for the Martial Arts Tournament, May 10th for the Social Mixer, and May 21st for the Development Plan.

The Martial Arts Tournament was scheduled to last for three days, during which time everyone in the base could come to watch, serving as a warm-up for the Social Mixer.

Thus, amidst the anticipation of the crowd, the Martial Arts Tournament finally arrived.

Since the winner of this tournament would become the captain of the newly established Security Team and gain a seat at the Base High-Level Meeting—granting them both a voice and a vote—it was incredibly attractive to all the Martial Artists.

The Base High-Level Meeting was essentially composed of the original Board of Directors, the heads of all departments, and the deputy captains of the base's direct-reporting squads. Every major decision made by the base required the deliberation of these members, so the power held within was significant.

Almost all members of the eight exploration teams participated in this tournament.

As in the past, this tournament was divided into two parts: the Individual Competition and the Team Competition.

The Individual Competition involved everyone sparring against one another to determine rankings, with points awarded based on those rankings.

The Team Competition consisted of three-person squads. The top ten finishers from the individual event were prohibited from teaming up. In a match, if any member of a squad stepped out of bounds, the team was disqualified, and points were awarded based on the final standings.

The highest combined score from both events would determine the winner of the tournament.

Naturally, the final results of the Individual Competition were no different from everyone's predictions: the eight team captains occupied the top eight spots, with two of them demonstrating a level slightly exceeding that of a high-level Warrior.

The Team Competition, however, was full of variety. Some tried to work together to knock one person out, only to be knocked out themselves; others tried to ambush someone, only to be ambushed in return; and some tried to use tricks to lure opponents out of bounds, only to stumble out themselves.

In short, the various ways people failed were hilarious.

Ultimately, the position of captain for the Security Team was claimed by Ren Tingchen, the former captain of the Third Exploration Team, who was also one of the individuals who had surpassed the level of a high-level Warrior.

After the Martial Arts Tournament concluded, the Social Mixer, which the young Martial Artists of each squad had been looking forward to, arrived.

Upon learning that both Lin Chenxing and Xi Qing would definitely be attending, the Martial Artists and the young men and women of the base who had agreed to participate were exceptionally excited.

Lin Chenxing could be considered the object of admiration for the vast majority of women in the base. To be so young and, despite having no foundational advantages, to become a core figure of such a large group through hard work and intelligence—in their eyes, he was simply too outstanding, and they had always felt he was out of reach. They never expected such an excellent person to actually attend the mixer, and everyone wanted to see how Lin Chenxing would behave in such a setting.

As for Xi Qing, having survived with dozens of people from Chuilong Town and arriving at the Xingyan Group base, she was an incredibly capable woman. Furthermore, she had become a member of the base's Elite Squad, yet there had rarely been any opportunity to interact with her.

When the two arrived at the venue together, a wave of enthusiastic applause erupted.

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

Li Yueqi, acting as the host, prepared various masks to liven up the atmosphere at the start of the mixer. After announcing everyone's names, he asked them to write a name on the inside of their masks—anyone present at the venue. After collecting the masks, he shuffled them and redistributed them, then asked the recipients to write another random name on the front of the masks.

These masks were collected again, and Li Yueqi read out the names on the front and back one by one. If the names matched, the person had to come on stage for the next step.

In the end, out of seventy-three masks, six had Lin Chenxing's name on both sides, two had Xi Qing's name on both sides, and the remaining three were masks where individuals had drawn a match for themselves.

The second round was the "social death" segment. Everyone in the audience drew lots to praise one of the people on stage, limited to one word each. The person on stage could ask the person praising them for the story behind the compliment. If they couldn't answer, they had to eat a piece of the special snacks prepared for the mixer; if they could answer, the person on stage had to eat the snack.

In the third round, after everyone had participated, they entered the heart-to-heart segment. Participants were required to prepare a small gift in a homemade box, which was placed alongside the "surprise" gifts prepared by the organizers. After being numbered and placed on stage, everyone drew a gift. At this point, people could exchange gifts, but only one-on-one and only once.

Lin Chenxing noticed that many people wanted to exchange gifts with him, but since he had no intention of finding a partner, he looked for a way to escape the predicament. He glanced at Xi Qing and saw her looking at her gift with an awkward expression, so he decided to swap with her, even though he could tell that the gift in her hand was likely one of the "surprise" gifts prepared by Li Yueqi and his team.

Although Lin Chenxing and Xi Qing did not particularly enjoy the mixer, many participants did reach agreements to meet and chat in detail later on, meaning the previous plan could be considered a great success.

Through the implementation of these two schemes, Gao Zheng and He Qishun, who had been observing the changes within the base, finally caught a glimpse of a clue.

Ren Tingchen, having won the tournament, had begun to fulfill his duties by inviting members of the other seven squads to join the Security Team. This move caused the other captains to complain incessantly to the board members after an unpleasant meeting with Ren Tingchen, demanding that he stop his actions.

After the Social Mixer, the frequency of meetings between the squad captains increased significantly, and many of them used the karaoke room that was being bugged.

When people talk too much, they are bound to slip up.

Through observation, the captains of three squads mentioned something related to the masks in their conversations, specifically complaining and asking about the situation regarding the masks at the mixer.

A normal mixer, even with masks, shouldn't have been a focal point of conversation, and this situation struck Gao Zheng and He Qishun as abnormal.

Furthermore, through continuous analysis, they obtained another keyword from the conversations: "Jester." It was a strange word, but based on their deductions, it was highly likely the name of the organization they had established.

Finally, they had managed to catch the tail of those people.

Whether they could round them all up now depended on the implementation of the final plan, and regarding this, Lin Chenxing and the others were extremely confident.