Urban Intelligence Network

The first light of dawn filtered in as the sea breeze, carrying a salty tang, poured through the half-open window.

Yang Yunzhi opened his eyes and gently moved the snow-white leg draped across his chest.

Hina murmured in her sleep and turned over, her pink hair spreading across the pillow like silk.

He watched her for a moment. The decisive, no-nonsense female Marine had cast off all her defenses now, her face as serene as a newly blooming rose.

But he had no time to lose himself in such tenderness.

He got up quietly, dressed, and left a note by the bed: "Going out today to establish an intelligence network. I'll be back before evening."

The moment he pushed open the door, he was once again the calm, insightful "Disciple" of the DD Organization.

Mornings in Glazed Town were always lively in just the right way.

The fish market had not yet dispersed, and the air carried the mingled smell of fish and sea salt.

At the docks, wooden boats laden with catches rocked gently with the waves, their hulls knocking against the stone shore with dull thumps. Vendors' cries, women haggling, and children playing intertwined into the distinctive melody of this coastal town.

Yang Yunzhi was not wearing his Marine uniform. A plain linen shirt and trousers let him blend easily into the crowd.

His first target was Afeng, the old village chief at the eastern end of town.

The vine-covered stone house stood on a hillside. When Yang Yunzhi pushed open its creaking wooden door, the old man was sitting in a wicker chair in the courtyard, reading a yellowed ledger in the morning light.

Hearing footsteps, Afeng looked up, surprise flickering in his cloudy eyes.

"Sir Marine?" He set down the ledger and tried to rise.

"No need." Yang Yunzhi waved him down and sat on a stone stool opposite him. "I'm here to discuss business."

"Business?" Afeng narrowed his eyes, his wrinkled hand rubbing the wicker armrest. "I'm just an old idler who keeps accounts and settles disputes. What business could I possibly discuss?"

"Information." Yang Yunzhi went straight to the point. "How many people enter and leave Glazed Town each day, which households have unfamiliar faces, which ships are acting suspiciously, and... any developments at sea."

He paused and lowered his voice. "I know you spent your younger years sailing year-round. You have plenty of people you can call on, and no one knows the waters around Glazed Town better than you."

Afeng fell silent for a moment. The sea breeze passed through the courtyard, rustling the leaves of the old banyan tree.

"You want me to be your informant?" the old man finally asked. There was no panic in his voice, only the calm of someone who had seen much in life. "I did this sort of work when I was young—guided merchant caravans, kept an eye on rivals for shipowners. But..."

He raised his head, his gaze sharpening. "Why should I trust that you won't discard me after you're done using me?"

Yang Yunzhi took a silver badge from his pocket and placed it gently on the stone table. Engraved on it was a butterfly-shaped design of two back-to-back Ds, gleaming coldly in the morning light.

"You're working for the Marines, yet you don't trust the Marines' reputation?" he said. "Besides, our base is in Glazed Town. If we wronged you, how could the base remain here? And we aren't asking you to take risks. We only need you to pay more attention and listen more closely in your everyday life. You'll receive five thousand Beli each month, with additional rewards for valuable intelligence."

He leaned forward, his voice carrying a quiet strength. "More importantly—if pirates really attack, we'll be among the first to arrive."

Afeng stared at the badge for a long time before reaching out with his withered hand and gripping it.

"Deal." The old man tucked the badge into his clothes. "But this old man has one condition—if anything really happens, someone has to protect the town's old folk, women, and children."

"Of course." Yang Yunzhi stood. "Starting today, you can contact me through this."

He raised his hand, and a faint golden spark flashed at his fingertips before vanishing. Afeng stared in astonishment as a light screen appeared out of thin air before him, displaying a simplified communication interface.

"This..." The old man was dumbfounded.

"Just a little trick." Yang Yunzhi lowered his hand. "Remember, only you may know about this. Before sunset each day, if there's anything worth reporting, leave a message on this interface."

By the time he left the stone house, the morning sun had fully risen above the horizon, coating the entire town in warm gold.

Yang Yunzhi took a deep breath. The smell of fish in the air had grown stronger, mixed with the smoky scent of cooking fires—the day's work had begun.

Over the next eighteen days, Yang Yunzhi traveled across the nine islands under Base 36's jurisdiction.

At the largest dock in Gem Country, he found three suitable candidates.

The first was a dockworker nicknamed One-Eyed Old Joe. The man was in his forties, and his left eye had been blinded in a cargo-box collapse, leaving him able to do only light work such as counting goods.

Everyone at the docks knew that Old Joe had an excellent memory—what ship docked on what day, what cargo it carried, and the names of its owners, he knew it all by heart.

"Two black loaves a day?" Old Joe sized Yang Yunzhi up with his remaining right eye, baring a gap-toothed grin. "Throw in a bowl of hot soup, and we have a deal."

The second was the newspaper-stand boy, Little Curly.

The child was only twelve or thirteen. His clothes were ragged but clean, and he spent all day behind a wooden stand piled with newspapers.

Yang Yunzhi had watched him for half a day. Little Curly could accurately call every customer who came to buy a paper by surname or nickname, and he could repeat nearly all the front-page headlines from every newspaper.

"You can read?" Yang Yunzhi crouched down, meeting the boy's eyes.

Little Curly nodded, then shook his head. "I only know the words in newspapers."

"That's enough." Yang Yunzhi placed a silver coin on the stand. "Starting today, work for me. This is your payment. You'll get it every day. Remember to read the papers every day, note down anything important, and upload it immediately." He paused. "Also, keep an eye on people who buy specific sections—for example, those who only buy the wanted-poster supplement."

The boy clutched the silver coin tightly, then looked at the light screen before him. His dirty little face lit up, his eyes shining like sparks upon the sea.

The third was Mute Uncle, an old beggar curled up in the shadow of a dockside warehouse.

The old man truly could not speak, but his hearing was astonishingly sharp. Yang Yunzhi had seen with his own eyes two men dressed as pirates quietly discussing a plan to raid somewhere twenty paces away, while Mute Uncle gnawed on a hard piece of bread and used charcoal to jot down the key details on a broken wooden board.

"How did you know they weren't just talking big?" Yang Yunzhi communicated with him using paper and pen.

Mute Uncle wrote crookedly on the board: "Blood on their boots. The wear on the scabbard shows they draw with their left hands. When they spoke, their eyes kept drifting toward the Golden Cockerel—that ship is carrying silk tomorrow."

Yang Yunzhi stuffed fifty Beli into the old man's arms, left him a packet of dried meat, then implanted a Little Bean link into his forehead.

Mute Uncle might have been mute, but typing on a screen did not require a mouth. With DD Chat, he had gained another way to communicate with the outside world. He was happier than he could say.

The approach in the other major cities was similar to Gem Country's.

In a sense, Yang Yunzhi was simply learning from Bezos. Bezos's intelligence network on Ghost Mulberry Island relied mainly on orphans, beggars, and newspaper sellers.

Yang Yunzhi had merely added dockworkers to the mix.

Orphans and beggars could appear anywhere without drawing attention, making them ideal for gathering intelligence. He could also select clever children from among the orphans and send them to Ghost Mulberry Island in the future to cultivate talent.

Moreover, orphans and beggars held low social status, so the cost of winning them over was naturally low. Two loaves of bread a day were enough.

It was not that Yang Yunzhi did not want to give them more. The main problem was that he did not have much money on hand.