Chapter 325: Hell Laboratory

Chapter 325: Chapter 177: Hell Laboratory

In a daze, a name surfaced in Xu Huo’s mind.

Cheng Yang!

He was the boss of the Cheng Group from the Zhaozhou case. He had multiple construction companies under his command.

If he wanted to, he could easily build a similar air-raid shelter in a short period.

‘Does someone like Cheng Yang still need to suck up to people?’

He was a tycoon worth over a hundred million, after all.

But… let’s put it this way.

In the previous life, in the Eastern Country alone—never mind the rest of the world—there were 130,000 people worth over a hundred million.

And that was with merchants being heavily suppressed in the Eastern Country.

If you looked at the whole world…

The number would truly exceed everyone’s imagination.

When there are that many, being worth a hundred million is no longer the ultimate goal. The needs, the desires—they all move on to a higher level.

So…

Cheng Yang might be powerful, but he wasn’t at the very top.

“The Special Fifth Bureau is responsible for this. I will give Zhao Gang the highest level of clearance, allowing him to bypass the local Jiangsan City authorities and investigate this matter directly.”

Zhang Liang said.

The task force’s authority was granted by the Capital City!

The Capital City had been very aggressive these days.

They were always ready for a “kill, kill, kill” approach—one moment cracking down hard on human traffickers, the next purging their own ranks of corrupt officials, and they even broadcast it all on the news.

“Any leads from the system trace?”

Xu Huo turned to Su Cheng.

Su Cheng had taken his card to help with the trace.

But the result…

“Not what we’d hoped. The IP address leads overseas. The moment I tried to breach their system, it self-destructed and immediately rebooted with a completely new architecture.”

Su Cheng’s expression was grim.

“Involving overseas assets? You think spies are involved?” Sun Jian asked in a low, gruff voice.

“Definitely!”

Su Cheng said with certainty, his eyes turning cold and calculating, his thoughts unreadable.

“There’s a fundamental difference between businessmen from the Eastern Country and the Western Country. Ours don’t dare to move around freely just for the sake of pleasure.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll leave this to National Security. When it comes to counter-espionage, they’re the experts,” Su Cheng said.

Businessmen from the Western Country were different. In the Eastern Country, no matter how big you got, you were dead if you dared to cross certain lines. And it was an unavoidable death.

You couldn’t cross the government, no matter what.

But in the Western Country, you could say the businessmen *were* the government, and the government *was* the businessmen. They carried political weight, which was why they usually didn’t travel to other countries lightly.

“Alright. For now, we’ll hand over the overseas angle and the follow-up trace on the Celestial Kingdom to National Security.”

“The internal investigation will be handled by the Special Fifth Bureau.”

Xu Huo nodded, making the temporary arrangements.

‘You’d be an idiot not to use the resources you have.’

Especially when they were specialists in their fields.

Besides, this wasn’t a job for standard criminal investigation. Counter-espionage didn’t work that way. You needed a macro-level intelligence network to track them.

Trying to track a single individual without it… would be a nightmare.

As for the Special Fifth Bureau’s part… Jiangsan City only had a handful of major corporations. If they checked them one by one, they’d likely find something. It would just take a lot of time, but again, it wasn’t a job for criminal investigators.

And now, what Xu Huo was preparing to do…

“How many people does Sima Kong have out there in total?”

“Excluding those who have died, there are 48 of them out on the streets. On average, they bring in nearly a hundred thousand in cash for Sima Kong every month.”

“Right. That’s just what we’ve been able to officially tally.”

“As for how many of these people there are in Jiangsan City in total… we don’t know for now.”

Zhang Liang looked at the file and said slowly.

Xu Huo paused, then took a deep breath.

“Make a backup of the file and send it to the Capital City.”

“The rest…”

Xu Huo paused. He decided that while the file was being sent to the Capital City, he himself would…

“Let’s start by sweeping up these people!”

“We’ll grab them one by one!”

…

…

It was time to round them up. Round up the members of the Beggar Gang.

The first task was to tell the difference between the Beggar Gang and ordinary beggars.

Ordinary beggars could be seen in the countryside, holding a bowl and knocking on doors, asking for food, not money.

The Beggar Gang, on the other hand, consisted of people with deliberately inflicted deformities, begging for money on roadsides and in high-traffic areas.

If there were only one or two, it would be fine. But if there were many in one area…

Then you had a major problem. Chances were, they were all controlled by the Beggar Gang.

Catching them was very difficult.

Because these people were likely from out of town; their files weren’t in Jiangsan City’s system.

Furthermore, the victims themselves were often not in their right minds. And even if they were, the gang members would have no reason to reveal their own identities to them.

But…

Time for the old-fashioned way.

The Beggar Gang was part of the Lower Nine Professions, and people like them were extremely sensitive about territory.

BANG!

「January 10th, 3:00 PM.」

In a residential building, Xu Huo kicked open a door.

A man inside froze, subconsciously getting ready to vault out the window.

However, just as he was about to jump, he found his feet were already off the ground.

He looked back to see a man built like a Titan.

“Zhang Cheng, right? You’re the new Boss among the thieves around here?”

Xu Huo and his team, all in plainclothes, closed in. He looked at the wiry man and spoke slowly.

“So what if I am? Who are you!?”

Zhang Cheng’s eyes held a flash of anger.

“Special Fifth Bureau. We’re government. You’d best cooperate.”

Sun Jian’s expression darkened, his presence overwhelming.

If it were a veteran crook, he might have caved by now.

But Zhang Cheng was different. Sun Jian’s threatening look didn’t scare him; it just fired him up.

“What Special Fifth Bureau? Never heard of it.”

“You broke into my home and ganged up on me! I’m gonna sue you!”

‘Shit…’

Li Jianye, who had come along, scowled.

‘The old Boss is in jail, and the new one’s a damn idiot. These young punks are always impulsive, never having tasted a real beating from life.’

“Damn it, don’t do this the hard way!”

“This has nothing to do with you. Just tell us what you know, and the police won’t bother with you!”

“You’re cops? The kind of cops who only know how to use your numbers?”

Zhang Cheng didn’t seem to be thinking clearly.

Sun Jian and Zhang Liang were stunned, and they exchanged a look.

‘This kid…’

‘Is he really this dense?’

“You dare let me go? Fight me one-on-one!”

Zhang Cheng looked at his cuffed hands and felt a wave of shame and anger.

“You’d better be smart about this and know what’s good for you.”

Li Jianye’s face darkened.

‘If the old Boss were here, we might have already gotten the information we wanted…’

Zhang Cheng remained defiant. He had only recently risen in rank; his head was full of simple impulses, and he acted without thinking about the consequences.

Until a voice spoke up.

“A one-on-one?”

Su Cheng and Zhang Liang glanced at their watches, calculated the time an interrogation would take versus just taking him in, then looked straight at the man.

‘It’s not worth the time, really not worth it.’

‘This guy’s a stubborn idiot; this is going to drag on. But for the people we’re trying to save—for whom every second is an eternity—this wasted time could be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back.’

Zhang Liang considered for a long moment before finally looking at Zhang Cheng and saying:

“I’ll give you a chance.”

“Pick anyone you want. Win, and you walk. Lose, and you talk.”

‘Pick anyone?’

‘They’re actually letting me fight one-on-one? Are these guys even cops!?’

Zhang Cheng was stunned, suddenly feeling a bit lost.

He had been banking on the police not giving him the chance to fight; after all, police brutality was a no-go.

‘But… they agreed? Are they really cops? No, the Special Fifth Bureau… what’s the Special Fifth Bureau?’

He subconsciously looked at Sun Jian.

Sun Jian’s face was murderous, his 1.9-meter frame towering over him, radiating an intimidating pressure.

Zhang Cheng immediately averted his gaze and looked at Li Jianye.

‘Based on my experience, this guy is a cop, nine times out of ten…’

‘Zhang Liang? No way, he looks a little shady.’

‘Su Cheng? Just one look at that dude and you can tell he’s shady as hell.’

‘What kind of people are these…’

Having calmed down, Zhang Cheng suddenly felt a pang of regret.

He suddenly regretted not having cooperated from the start.

He wanted to cooperate now, but he felt he had lost face, wanting to speak but unable to get the words out.

Until…

Zhang Cheng’s eyes lit up, and he pointed a finger.

“You! The pretty boy!”

Suddenly,

A strange, stiff silence fell over the room.

Xu Huo paused. He glanced at the others, then back at Zhang Cheng. Finally, he slowly raised a finger and pointed at his own chest.

“Huh?”

“Me?”

“You sure?”

Zhang Cheng said viciously.

“That’s right. You.”

“Damn it, come on and fight me one-on-one!”