Relax

Wang Yiyang paid the bill and pushed open the shop door.

The sky outside had already turned dark, and the crisp, cold air hit his face, making the smell of hot pot on his clothes seem less intense.

Under the veil of night, the high-rise buildings of Yingxing City were covered in flickering neon advertisements.

Various flowing, colorful electronic ads slowly unfolded across the building facades, accompanied by eye-catching light and shadow effects.

A massive amount of colorful light illuminated the streets of the city center.

Wang Yiyang let out a burp, finally reaching into his inner jacket pocket to fish out his specialized phone.

After a day of rest, it was time to get back into the swing of things.

He unlocked the phone and checked his messages and missed calls.

The first one he opened was a message from his subordinate, Jian.

As one of the most capable subordinates currently under his command, Jian was responsible for operational command during emergencies.

Therefore, he wouldn't proactively contact Wang Yiyang unless something major happened. And once he did, it meant something significant had likely occurred.

Wang Yiyang opened the message.

"Boss, the attachment contains the interrogation transcripts for Zhong Can and the remnants of the Mantis. Just click to download."

He immediately followed instructions, opened the attachment, and selected download.

Soon, a series of data and information appeared clearly before Wang Yiyang's eyes.

The facts were indeed as he had previously speculated.

Zhong Can had been incited by the Mantis, which led to his intention to leave the martial arts school.

And behind the Mantis, there was a massive organization that specifically targeted these small martial arts schools.

This was bad news.

However, the good news was that the large organization did not consider the Mantis to be members; they simply issued bounties, and whoever completed the bounty would receive the corresponding reward.

As for who completed it, they didn't care.

Whether it was the Mantis or other organizations, they were all just wild dogs fighting over bait.

After reading through the data, Wang Yiyang was temporarily certain that there would be no more trouble from the Mantis in the short term; he only needed to remain vigilant.

He closed the attachment and walked aimlessly along the sidewalk, his fingers quickly scrolling through the other messages below.

Soon, one message caught his attention.

"The Resource Control Ordinance will be officially implemented starting tomorrow. The Mien Federation will conduct unified management and grading of all resources imported from extraterrestrial sources. Those exceeding a certain amount must report to the Federation's resource department three days in advance."

This information came out of the blue. If Wang Yiyang were a truly competent Security Department head, he might have been able to glean some useful intelligence from it.

Unfortunately, he was still far from that level of insight.

Although his intuition told him this information was important, what he cared about most right now was the biggest trouble he had to face as the head of the Security Department! That was the real puzzle.

Soon, he mapped out most of the connections related to his identity as Security Department head Mister.

Judging from the identity provided by the hidden system.

The reason he had been able to maintain an advantage within the group previously was that he also had a coalition of allies within the group.

Mister oversaw dozens of departments, but the five most important were: the Security Department, R&D Department, Monitoring Department, Master Control Department, and Public Relations Department.

Among them, Wang Yiyang controlled the Security Department, while that old man Kesatirein, whom he had encountered before, controlled the R&D Department.

And among the five major departments, the Public Relations Department and the Monitoring Department had previously been allies standing on the same side as Wang Yiyang.

This was the key to his ability to firmly hold onto his position as department head.

If there had been no accidents, this model might have continued until the new chairman took office and announced the official reorganization.

But unfortunately, an accident occurred.

When Wang Yiyang was in charge of the Security Department, in order to rectify the atmosphere and eliminate dissent, he had used some rather unscrupulous methods. His actions were ruthless and terrifying to others.

At the time, this was indeed a good way to suppress unrest and disloyalty.

But years later, the aftereffects arrived.

Among those against whom Wang Yiyang had issued an extermination order, one survivor who had luckily escaped death had crawled back from hell.

He came for revenge, and he wasn't alone; he had brought several equally powerful companions.

As soon as this Avenger appeared, he severely crippled the strongest trump card of the Mister Security Department—the Red Rain Squad.

After multiple failed attempts to mobilize forces to surround and kill him, Wang Yiyang had no choice but to hide his identity and leave the Maria Islands to escape the other party's relentless pursuit.

As for the Avenger's abilities, he had no clue.

The opponent always wore a silver metal mask engraved with demon-like patterns, and his true face remained unknown.

Furthermore, the methods used by the Avenger were not martial arts or anything of the sort. They were thermal weapons mixed with something else.

Because everyone who had come into direct contact with the Avenger was already dead. The opponent was also very cautious, carrying high-interference shielding equipment with him at all times.

This resulted in the Security Department being completely unable to track the target's whereabouts or obtain any additional information.

Wang Yiyang organized the data from the chip, combining it with the information on his phone and the brief summary in his mind.

He quickly pieced together the cause and effect of this trouble.

However, after reading the Avengers' combat record, he couldn't help but gasp.

The Avengers' most impressive feat was single-handedly annihilating a small security base that housed over a hundred people.

Not a single person in the entire base survived; they were all executed, and the base was finally demolished and razed to the ground.

Even movies wouldn't dare to script it like this, right?! Wang Yiyang finally understood how serious the trouble he was facing really was.

There was no doubt that the opponent was a master of high-tech combat.

To be honest, a person of this caliber posed a greater threat to Wang Yiyang than even dozens of Grand Justice martial artists.

"And... when did I ever wipe out his whole family? How come I don't even know about it..." Wang Yiyang was speechless.

Although he had long been prepared to shoulder everything that came with his hidden identity, now that it was actually happening, he still felt a persistent, dull ache.

"Fortunately, I still have time to prepare. I'll have my next new identity in four days."

Wang Yiyang carefully calculated the time. According to the data provided by the hidden system, the Avengers would arrive on April 11th.

In this way, if the system's accuracy was high enough and there were no deviations, he would have one chance on the 25th, one on April 2nd, and one on April 9th.

That made for a total of three opportunities for a new identity.

"Three chances... but I can't pin all my hopes on the system. If my luck is bad, I'll end up with nowhere to be buried. I have to find a way..."

Wang Yiyang pondered as he walked, and before he knew it, he had arrived back at the Green Tree Residential Complex.

The elevator had been repaired this time, and a cleaning lady was using a mop to scrub the interior walls from top to bottom.

As soon as Wang Yiyang stepped inside, he was hit by the pungent smell of cleaning agents.

What surprised him, however, was that the sharp odor stimulated his nerves, making his brain feel relaxed and refreshed. He instantly felt much clearer.

"Right, there's another suspicious point. According to my own memory, I handled everyone involved in that incident back then; I didn't leave a single person who knew the truth. There's no way anyone should know that I was the one who issued the extermination order."

"So... where did the Avengers get this information?"

Wang Yiyang stepped out of the elevator and pulled out his keys to unlock his door.

Bang.

The sound of the security door slamming shut echoed through the stairwell.

He suddenly remembered the system's prompt.

"I remember the system's prompt at the time focused on the power struggle within the group. Could it be that this Avenger is likely a pawn deliberately supported by someone inside the group, specifically aimed at me?"

He looked thoughtful.

With the system acting as a cheat, he could deduce a lot of useful information from even the most insignificant hints.

Thinking of this, Wang Yiyang's eyes grew deeper.

He calculated the power he had at his disposal and realized that because he had been away for so long, the management of the Security Department relied entirely on two deputy directors, leading to much of his power being quietly siphoned off by other departments.

Many of the forces he could have stabilized were now benefiting others because he was too busy being hunted to oversee them.

Carefully calculating, he realized he could now only mobilize at most one-fifth of the Security Department's strength from its peak.

"This is truly tricky..." Wang Yiyang could feel a heavy, inescapable net spreading out to envelop him.

And this time, unlike the martial arts school incident, his opponent was on the same level as his own identity, if not higher. The opponent had even more external resources to draw upon.

Plus, there was the Avenger lurking in the shadows...

"Is it really just a matter of waiting for a new identity and hoping for luck?" Wang Yiyang was unwilling to accept that.

"I need power, power I can use immediately... and it would be best if it were an external force from outside the chessboard..."

Wang Yiyang's eyes flickered as he stood straight in the living room, motionless.

His first thought was the authorities; the Mien Federation was undoubtedly the largest behemoth of a power.

But compared to his opponent, his status held no advantage, and it was uncertain who the authorities would actually help when the time came.

Secondly, there were his other allies within the group.

The Public Relations Department and the Monitoring Department had once been his allies. But now, with his power in sharp decline and him being chased with nowhere to hide, the directors of those two departments had chosen to watch from the sidelines, not wanting to get burned.

Persuading them to step in and help would be too difficult. And even if they did, it was unlikely to be useful.

Third.

Wang Yiyang picked up his phone and glanced at the few new names in his contacts.

"What if it's a martial arts expert?"

He had witnessed experts of the Bright Light and even Grand Justice tiers; had they not been poisoned, such powerhouses could unleash their physical strength in short bursts, dodging gunfire as easily as a stroll through the woods.

Firearms numbering fewer than ten posed almost no threat to them.

Thinking of this, Wang Yiyang felt a twinge of regret that he hadn't persisted in his youth to train in martial arts alongside his grandfather, Wang Xinlong.

Although martial arts did not dominate in combat, they still offered a certain degree of self-defense.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

According to his grandfather, once the bones and muscles were set and the blood and qi became impure, a year of training now might not even yield the results a child could achieve in a month.

Moreover, he currently had neither the time nor the inclination to delve into martial arts.

"Then, I have no choice but to test the Yanhu Sect. I'll throw money at it and get to the bottom of things first," Wang Yiyang decided.

He then picked up his phone, fell silent for a moment, and dialed a number with a brief motion.