Ark, Just Tell Me Whether the Mission Was Completed

"I didn't post this video today to win everyone's sympathy."

"I only wanted to hear an apology from my unfit father."

The woman in the video sat beneath dim yellow light, her shoulders trembling slightly, as though bearing an unspeakable weight.

Her eyes were moist, gleaming with crystalline light, as if they held deep sorrow and endless grief.

The woman's delicate, moving face seemed to possess some kind of magic. With just one glance, Ch'en's heart had already tightened.

The woman's heartfelt accusation reminded Ch'en of how she, too, had been abandoned by her father. Her blood immediately rushed to her head, and she wanted nothing more than to personally kill the girl's father.

"That damned scumbag, what a beast!"

"Hey! Ch'en, what are you talking about? What the video says is obviously slander!"

Lin Yuxia's roar through the phone instantly cooled Ch'en's thoughts.

Right.

She knew the Rat King.

He had a wife and daughter, and he was a man with firm principles. He did not seem like the kind of person who would do what the video described.

But that was only based on what she knew of the Rat King. She had not lived through his younger days, so she could not rule out the possibility that the video was true.

"Lin Yuxia, let me ask you something. Is what the video says really false?"

Ch'en's question left Lin Yuxia silent on the other end of the call. A few breaths later, she actually laughed.

"Ch'en, I don't think anyone can prove my father's innocence better than Governor Wei."

"If you have doubts, you can go ask Governor Wei."

"I've already investigated the rumor-monger's communications address. She isn't in the Lower City; she's in the area under your Lungmen Guard Department's jurisdiction."

"A rumor with such terrible consequences, and your Lungmen Guard Department still needs me to urge you to deal with it?"

Lin Yuxia had nearly been driven mad by the rumors over the past two days.

When someone first told her that people online were spreading rumors about her father, she had merely smiled and paid it no mind. A figure like her father was bound to attract gossip.

But unexpectedly, the person spreading the rumors seemed to have a massive organization behind her.

After the so-called victim made her accusation, people calling themselves relationship gurus, experts, and professors immediately appeared to analyze and hype it up.

In less than a day, rumors that the Rat King had abandoned his wife and child in his youth had spread through every street and alley of Lungmen.

She had not even been given a chance to react or deal with it.

What was even more crushing was that after the other side's repeated hype, even her mother had believed the nonsense online and grabbed a kitchen knife to chop up her father.

Their once-peaceful home had instantly descended into chaos. She had even received a long-overdue slap for saying a few words in her father's defense.

Whoever was behind this, once she caught them, she would make them regret ever being born.

Listening to Lin Yuxia's slightly hoarse voice, Ch'en could only silently sympathize with her old classmate.

"Anyway, calm down first. I'll get someone to investigate whoever is spreading the rumors. I'll contact you once there's news."

From Superintendent Ch'en's perspective, a gang boss being slandered was actually rather amusing.

If it had not been the Rat King, who was extremely important to Lungmen, but the leader of some other gang, Ch'en would not have minded having the Lungmen Guard Department add a little fuel to the fire from behind the scenes.

But since the Rat King and his daughter were vital to the stability of the Lower City, she had no choice but to use the Lungmen Guard Department's resources to help them eliminate the impact.

Otherwise, the Governor's Office would be urging her to get to work in a few days.

Ch'en copied the link to the video and sent it to an officer in the Technical Department, asking them to trace the link's IP address.

While sending the address, Ch'en opened the video and watched it again.

She did not know if it was just an illusion, but the girl's background suddenly felt somewhat familiar.

Where had she seen a ceiling made of that material before?

An hour later.

The Technical Department sent Ch'en a reply.

"Chief Ch'en, according to the Technical Department's tracing and investigation, the IP address of that link is our Lungmen Guard Department."

"What?" Ch'en felt certain she had misheard.

How was she supposed to explain this to Lin Yuxia? Was she supposed to say that the rumor-monger was inside the Lungmen Guard Department?

How could that be possible?

"Chief, the IP address you provided belongs to our Lungmen Guard Department. And it's from the Lungmen Guard Department headquarters."

"How could it be the Lungmen Guard Department's IP?"

"Chief, perhaps you should ask the person who gave you the link? The posting address for this link is our Lungmen Guard Department intranet."

"Where am I supposed to find..."

Ch'en froze halfway through her sentence.

The video she had watched an hour earlier flashed through her mind. Whether it was the ceiling in the background or the yellow lamp, everything felt familiar.

A dreadful premonition rose in Ch'en's heart.

With that thought in mind.

Ch'en looked up at the ceiling above her head. It was indeed the same standard model from the same manufacturer as the ceiling in the video.

Could that rumor-monger be inside the Lungmen Guard Department?

When the Technical Department staffer heard that Superintendent Ch'en had not replied for a long time, they could not help asking, "Chief, the technical assessment points to the Lungmen Guard Department. Would you like to provide us with more information so we can verify it again?"

Ch'en suppressed the turmoil in her heart and said calmly, "Not yet. I'll send you a screenshot. Help me remove the person in the video, then send me the background image. And one more thing: keep the matter I asked you to investigate strictly confidential. It concerns a Lungmen Guard Department operation."

"Understood, Chief."

Officer Ch'en, I'm Very Disappointed in You

Top floor of the Lungmen Guard Department, Ch'en's office.

The balcony's modern design let sunlight fill the entire room.

Ch'en stood by the window, her fists clenched.

The Technical Department was extracting the video's background. Once she got the picture, she could use it to trace the recording location.

What troubled her was how she should handle things after finding that room.

The woman could be sued for defamation.

But how should the officer who had helped her spread the rumors be dealt with?

By allowing the woman to spread rumors without reporting it in advance, that person had undoubtedly violated regulations.

Yet the target of the woman's rumors was a gang boss.

Were they supposed to punish a Lungmen Guard Department officer for the sake of a gang leader's reputation? What would the other officers think?

But if they did not deal with it, they would not be able to satisfy Lin Yuxia either.

Just as Ch'en was worrying over it, the office door opened and Hoshiguma walked in.

"Old Ch'en, you're back so soon? How did the new recruit assessment go?"

"Ah... It was okay. More or less."

Ch'en hesitated over whether to tell Hoshiguma about the Rat King being slandered.

But after thinking about how her suspicions had not yet been confirmed, she decided to wait until they caught the rumor-monger.

"Did all twenty people at the bottom get eliminated?" Hoshiguma asked next.

"Three passed."

"Which three?"

"There was no last place."

"Oh."

Although Hoshiguma had long known that Luo Chen would not make it, once she received the official result, she still found herself worrying about his future.

Over the past few days, she had investigated many different jobs.

If she had not looked into it, she would never have known. Once she did, the truth was startling.

There really were not many jobs in society that Luo Chen could do.

The high-paying ones either required professional skills or social connections.

The low-paying ones required physical ability above the average line.

As for service jobs with varying pay, Luo Chen, proud as he was, definitely would not stick with them.

At this rate, Luo Chen would likely struggle to survive until the Lungmen Guard Department's next recruitment drive.

Beep beep—

Just as the two of them were thinking about different things, Ch'en's phone rang.

It was the background image sent by the Technical Department.

Not only had the photo removed the woman in the video, but it had also restored part of the background she had blocked.

Ch'en looked at the bed and ceiling in the picture, silently considering where this place might be.

Beside her, Hoshiguma heard the phone and instinctively glanced at Ch'en's screen. She immediately recognized the place in the photograph.

"Isn't this Luo Chen's training dorm? Old Ch'en, why are you secretly taking pictures of the boys' dorm?"

Hoshiguma's probing, suspicious tone interrupted Ch'en's thoughts.

Hoshiguma knew Ch'en's character. She was an upright and kind person.

But just as Hoshiguma herself liked drinking, there was no guarantee that Old Ch'en did not have some unusual hobby.

Ch'en's act of taking photos of the boys' dorm and keeping them on her phone only puzzled Hoshiguma more.

What examiner would have nothing better to do than sneak around taking pictures of a recruit's dormitory?

Could Old Ch'en possibly...

Ch'en raised her head with a strange expression, not knowing how to explain it to Hoshiguma.

Her mind was now filled with a violent shock.

Recruit dormitory. Rat King.

Those two terms, linked together, suddenly awakened a memory from three days ago.

"Chief, are there any restrictions on how I complete the mission?"

"No."

Ch'en's sixth sense told her that the Rat King scandal that had suddenly appeared over the past two days might be connected to Luo Chen, the person who had asked that question.

But the truth could not possibly be this explosive, could it?

And Hoshiguma had said that Luo Chen was an honest, straightforward person. It seemed unlikely that he would do something like this.

Yet that dormitory seemed to reinforce the possibility.

At that thought, Ch'en could no longer sit still.

Rather than analyze it here, she might as well go directly to the recruits' dormitory and take a look.

"I'm going out."