Level 2 Mission Reward

After Yegor left, Marco slung an arm around Wei En with a beaming smile and praised him. "You're amazing. You only just got here and you've already earned a level-two mission reward."

Wei En glanced at him and said softly, "Why don't you take a stroll around Crimson Cathedral and try it?"

Thinking back on what had happened in the cathedral, he still felt lingering fear. It had truly been too dangerous. If that Director had not saved him at the final moment, he would probably have already been corrupted by that Dawn faith by now.

"I'll pass. I hope I never run into that kind of mission. You have no idea—when Tina suddenly fainted back then, she scared the life out of us."

Tina?

Wei En looked around. "Right, where did Tina go?"

He had wanted to ask that question before the questioning began.

It was just that several members of the High-Level Committee had been present then, and he had not found the right chance.

Clearly, the prompt on the panel earlier had said Tina had already recovered from her dormancy...

"Don't worry, Tina's fine, but she'll have to rest for a while before she can come back."

"Rest? Was she injured?"

"She..."

Lacy cut in. "Marco, go write up the report on the course of this case."

"Wasn't Wei En supposed to... Fine, I'll go right now."

When Marco saw her gaze, his head shrank back, and he hurried to the desk, picked up a quill, and began writing.

An ominous feeling welled up in Wei En's heart. He looked at Lacy and asked, "Did something happen to Tina?"

Lacy did not answer. Instead, she looked at him with a complicated expression. "I'm sorry, Wei En. I didn't expect an accident like this to happen during this mission. I nearly caused you to not come back."

"I understand. This time was just an accident." Wei En shook his head. "I still want to know what happened to Tina."

Seeing how insistent he was, Lacy replied helplessly, "There is indeed something wrong with Tina's body... It's just that her situation is very complicated. It isn't something we can intervene in."

Wei En suddenly remembered that Tina was a Calamity Species with a tendency toward distortion. Could it be...

"Is it because... she showed signs of distortion?"

Lacy sighed and comforted him. "Yes, but right now she only has the risk of distortion. As long as it's handled properly, she'll be back soon."

Wei En nodded. That explained it.

But clearly, the panel earlier had not shown any prompt about the contract being interrupted. Could that also lead to distortion?

Or rather, was it caused by the erosion of the power of the Dawn faith?

No matter which situation it was, he had caused Tina to fall into trouble this time.

Moreover, if she had not fainted, perhaps the Demon Clown would not have appeared either... This time, he owed Tina a favor.

Thinking of Melbel's appearance, Wei En felt the urge to kill someone for the first time in his life!

After hesitating for a moment, Lacy asked, "Aside from the pollution of the Dawn faith, did anything else happen?"

"No."

Wei En shook his head. He knew what Lacy wanted to ask.

On the way back, he had thought it through very clearly. Melbel had attacked him not because he had discovered his identity as a heretic or an investigator of the Secret Investigation Bureau, but solely because of Kali...

So this was his private matter!

"That's good. I was worried you'd been affected."

"No... May I ask how I was rescued?"

"I'm not sure either. At the time, when we brought Tina to find Yegor, he told us to return to the office and wait first. After that, he arranged for Marco to go pick you up."

Wei En said thoughtfully, "I see..."

It seemed that the matter of using the Demon Clown had not reached the Logistics Department.

Combined with what Deputy Director Baratz had said earlier, he could be certain that very few people knew about this matter.

It was even possible that some members of the High-Level Committee did not know the truth...

Thinking of this, Wei En adjusted his emotions and asked, "What is a level-two mission reward? I saw that high-ranking official called Dorf didn't seem very willing."

"It isn't a specific thing, but a reward list the bureau divided according to item grades."

A smile appeared on Lacy's face. "It contains not only specially made weapons and equipment, but also all kinds of precious extraordinary materials, as well as Era Relics."

"And a level-two mission reward means that from among these things, you can choose at most three items. If the item you choose is too valuable, you may even only be able to choose one."

"When the time comes, don't be polite. Take whatever you want."

Wei En raised an eyebrow. "Three items, or one item? When can I get them?"

He was already impatient to obtain the mission reward. He hoped there would be something inside that he could use right now.

"Don't be in such a hurry. Wait until I finish writing the application form and get Yegor's signature first. When the time comes, I'll take you there with me. Otherwise, those bastards in the Property Management Department will definitely make things difficult for you on purpose."

"All right."

Wei En knew his strength was still too weak right now. If he were strong enough, he would not have been so easily dragged into some Spring of Faith.

By the time Lacy got the application form back with its stamp, it was already two in the afternoon.

It turned out that applying for the reward for a level-two mission required not only the signature of Yegor, the Logistics Department minister, but also the High-Level Committee's stamp.

"Marco, why are you coming along too?" Lacy hammered the trendy red-haired man with a displeased look on her face.

"Hey, I'm just going to broaden my horizons. I've been in Division One for so long, but I've never been there..."

Wei En watched the two of them horse around, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

To be honest, when they were carrying out a mission, Lacy and Marco were both extremely professional, but the moment they returned to the Secret Investigation Bureau...

The two of them spent most of their time laughing and joking.

He had even quietly asked Marco about it over lunch.

He remembered Marco looking at him in surprise at the time. "A mission is a mission, and life is life. Just because we see those misfortunes, does that mean we have to make our own lives depressing too?"

That answer really was very Marco...

Wei En thought about it for a long time and more or less understood what the two of them were thinking.

The work of the Secret Investigation Bureau was already full of danger and misfortune, and even a great deal of criticism.

They did not want, nor did they hope, to let their own lives become an extension of that misfortune as well...

"Lacy, why are you here again?"

The one receiving them was still Somlai. He looked at the three of them with an irritated expression. "Don't you know that the Property Management Department involves multiple confidential research projects and can't be entered and exited at will?"

"Oh, come on. Who knows whether you're actually researching anything or just slacking off in muddy waters?"

Lacy's expression was full of disdain as she slapped the application form onto his face. "Level-two mission reward. Please lead the way."

"What level two?"

Somlai looked at the application form in his hand, his mouth forming an "O" shape as he said in surprise, "What mission did you carry out to actually get this?"

"That's none of your business. Like you said—confidential!"

After Somlai saw the name on it clearly, he pointed at Wei En and said, "Lacy, are you sure you didn't take the wrong one? If I remember right, he only just went to your Division One, didn't he?"

"What, you don't believe me, and you don't believe this stamp either? Look carefully. Baratz Cartwright!"

Wei En wore a faint smile as he watched their verbal sparring.

In fact, he was rather curious about the Property Management Department too.

They could occupy the most magnificent office building in the Secret Investigation Bureau and still treat other departments with such a terrible attitude. They must be holding extremely important things in their hands.

To put it more vividly, the feeling they gave him was like the finance department at a company in his previous life.

"...Follow me."

Somlai also knew this application form could not possibly be forged. It was just force of habit.

"These bastards are just like this. They treat everything in the bureau as if it were part of their Property Management Department's private collection. Taking even a single item out of there is enough to make their hearts ache for half a day."

Marco laughed. "If you want to blame someone, you have to blame the higher-ups for treating the Property Management Department too well, to the point that they developed some inexplicable sense of superiority."

Wei En held back his laughter. When it came to cutting people down, it still had to be them.

"Hey, hey, I'm telling you two, can you at least avoid me when you're badmouthing us?" Somlai said, unable to endure it any longer. "Besides, your Logistics Department just does odd jobs. What right do you have to talk about us?"

"Odd jobs?" Lacy clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. "If you've got the guts, say that again."

"I... cough, cough, cough. We're here. This is the Collection Room. I'm warning you, you absolutely cannot touch anything inside at random. There are defensive magic arrays."

Somlai stiffly turned his head away. He would never get into a conflict with this female tyrannosaur.

That would be no different from looking for one of the muscleheads from the Combat Department for a fight—purely courting death...