Chapter 256 210: The So-called Mole

Meanwhile.

Chu Bamboo hung up the phone. His brow furrowed, his expression grim as he peered through the window, surveying the many escort officers in their hospital beds. Some of them were even groaning in pain.

Several doctors and nurses were busy tending to their injuries.

"What's our next move?" Li Kang asked as he came up behind Chu Bamboo. Even though he knew the window prevented the people inside from hearing them, he still subconsciously lowered his voice.

"Eliminate the most severely injured and the most lightly injured. Then, pick one at random. I want to have a chat with him." Chu Bamboo didn't recognize any of the escort officers, which was to be expected; he had already submitted a list of all the moles he was aware of.

Clearly, as long as the Captain's Office had any sense, they would have already transferred those obvious risks away from important posts.

However… even without the precognition granted by constantly reloading, he could still figure out a lot just by relying on his own hard-won experience.

'First of all, the most severely injured person here looks like he's hanging by a thread. He's probably not the mole… But the one with the lightest injuries is unconscious. To avoid suspicion, it's unlikely the mole would fake injuries this minor…'

'So… I'll just pick someone from the middle!'

'The odds of picking one this way aren't actually that low… At the end of the day, there was almost certainly more than one mole sent on this mission.'

"Alright." Just as Li Kang was about to make a move, Chu Bamboo suddenly thought of something and added, "Pick one with a special skill!"

"...Like what?" Li Kang asked, hesitating slightly.

"Crime-solving?" Chu Bamboo sounded uncertain himself. He then realized that particular skill was probably useless to him and continued, "How about someone with peerless fighting skills? Or someone ranked among the very best in Daqian? Unbeatable marksmanship would work too! Saber or staff techniques are also fine… I'm not picky!"

Li Kang: "...?"

His expression contorted, and he opened his mouth to speak several times, only to stop himself. 'This is the logistics department!'

'Besides, even I wouldn't dare claim my skills are ranked among the best in Daqian. And you… you say you're not picky? With standards like these, there's no one to pick even if I wanted to!'

"If that's too much to ask, other specialties are fine too! Okay, forget the high standards. Just find someone with a special skill, any skill." Even Chu Bamboo realized how absurd his request sounded.

Li Kang finally breathed a small sigh of relief. He still found it a bit odd, though. 'Why the emphasis on a special skill…?'

"One more thing…" Chu Bamboo paused for emphasis. "He must not know any Kung Fu. You should be able to find someone like that, right?"

'After all, my Rewrite ability doesn't work on Transcendents yet.'

"We can. In the logistics department, the proportion of Kung Fu masters isn't as high as you'd think anyway," Li Kang replied, a subtle expression on his face.

The Captain's Office wasn't, in fact, an organization composed entirely of Transcendents.

Only the Special Operations Brigades in each district were made up exclusively of Transcendents.

Of course, in a department like logistics that mixed the Extraordinary and ordinary people, their job duties, and even their work areas, were relatively segregated. At the same time, all members were required to strictly follow all rules and maintain confidentiality.

Only for missions like this escort duty, which shouldn't have been risky, would the Extraordinary and ordinary people be assigned to work together.

It sounded like a hassle, but there was no other way.

To put it bluntly, it was because Transcendents were simply too rare. The Captain's Office couldn't possibly operate if it had to rely solely on them.

"Let's go with that, then," Chu Bamboo agreed.

...

「A short while later.」

Inside a spacious, empty hospital room.

Li Kang wheeled in a man who was covered in bandages and had an uneasy look on his face.

Li Kang looked at Chu Bamboo, who was seated on a chair in the middle of the room. "This is Section Chief Gao Xuan, the second-in-command of this operation. His abilities are quite strong…"

Li Kang glanced impassively at Gao Xuan, his own expression unreadable. He had chosen this man because he'd seen a report earlier and sensed some inexplicable points of suspicion surrounding him.

Li Kang gathered his thoughts. "He has mastered seven regional dialects and is also fluent in the languages of several overseas Alien Races. The Honglu Temple in Jinghai often borrows him to communicate with the Red-Haired Race and Golden-Furred Race from the Western Land… This should meet your 'special skill' requirement, right?"

The terms Red-Haired and Golden-Furred, of course, referred to the overseas Alien Races of this era.

"He's perfect." Chu Bamboo nodded with a smile. It was true that he didn't know much about the languages of the overseas Alien Races. Even with his constant resets… Forget the Dream World; even in the Real World, he had always hated studying English.

He was even less likely to learn the languages of the overseas Alien Races in the Dream World… After all, he used to think this entire world was fake, so he only ever learned Skills based on what interested him…

'But, I have to admit… now that I know this world is real, learning the languages of the overseas Alien Races would certainly be helpful for the future.'

After a brief pause, Chu Bamboo sized up Gao Xuan again and again, staring until the man was practically on pins and needles.

Finally, Gao Xuan couldn't take it anymore. "Young man… why did you call me here? I—I told the investigators everything I knew the moment I woke up. I really don't know anything else…"

"Don't worry. This will be over soon." Chu Bamboo gestured to Li Kang. Li Kang's brow furrowed, but he did as they had discussed, and delivered a light chop to the back of Gao Xuan's neck.

Gao Xuan didn't even have time to feel alarmed before his eyes rolled back and he passed out.

"Alright, you can leave now, too. Don't worry, I'll return him to you in one piece shortly," Chu Bamboo said, reassuring him.

Li Kang opened his mouth, but trusting Chu Bamboo, he ultimately backed out of the room. After closing the door, he paced back and forth a few times to calm himself, muttering internally, 'So, is it some kind of intelligence-gathering Divine Technique?'

To be able to obtain answers through such a secretive method… the only thing Li Kang could think of was a Divine Technique.

But if it really was what he imagined…

He glanced at the door, his eyes filled with a mix of envy and regret. 'What a pity.'

'A pity that Ah Zhu is just an Honored Guest Elder and not my subordinate in the Special Operations Brigade.'

'Otherwise, I can't even imagine how easy solving cases would become.'

'A Cultivator with an intelligence-gathering Divine Technique like that would be unimaginably sought-after in the Captain's Office!'

But then, Li Kang slapped his cheeks and consoled himself. 'Actually, it's better this way! If he really has a Divine Technique like that and it gets out… I'm afraid Captain Huo would forcibly transfer him away!'

'The Third District's special ops team could never hold on to such a high-value asset. In fact, from what I know, the Second District had a talent like that once, and in the end…'

'Mmm, I heard even Captain Huo couldn't keep him. He was eventually transferred to the Celestial Capital…'