NOVGO.NET Chapter 53: Rapid Improvement Within Sight
Chapter 53: Chapter 53: Rapid Improvement Within Sight
“I’ll have Hu Xiang keep an eye on him for now.” Su Chen closed his wristband after receiving a firm confirmation from Hu Xiang.
He turned, and just as he was about to enter the Gravity Chamber, he froze. He glanced toward the door as if sensing something, and the knocking sounded again.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
“It’s certainly lively today.”
Su Chen opened the door and was slightly taken aback by what he saw.
“Younger Brother Su…” A middle-aged man stood outside. He wasn’t particularly tall, only reaching Su Chen’s shoulder, and his face wore a genial smile.
“Section Chief… Pan?” Su Chen stared at the man, not having expected to meet him so soon.
The visitor was none other than Pan Yu.
“What brings you here so suddenly?” Su Chen’s face betrayed nothing but surprise.
“You’ve been in the patrol section for some time, and we haven’t had a chance for a proper chat.” Pan Yu chuckled. “What, am I not welcome?”
“Not at all. Please, come in.” Su Chen stepped aside. ’His repeated covert actions are proof enough that he doesn’t dare make a move on me here.’
“Are you settling in okay here?” Pan Yu asked, looking around and feigning concern.
“It’s much better than my previous place,” Su Chen said with his back to the man, pouring a glass of water. ’What a shame,’ he thought.
’He arrived so suddenly. I’m not ready to make a move; it’s not a good opportunity to use poison.’
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Pan Yu sighed and got to the point. “My friend, as you’ve probably figured out, I didn’t really come here just to chat.”
“To be honest with you, with the Lord City Lord temporarily managing the Inspectorate, everyone, from top to bottom, is on their toes, terrified of making a mistake. As it happens, your Seventeenth Patrol Squad falls under my purview.”
“This is rather awkward…” He put on a troubled expression. “You’ve been staying in your room this whole time, but the patrol squad’s records show perfect attendance. That was fine back when the Director was around, but now…”
He sighed, his tone helpless. “My friend, can’t you see the difficult position this puts me in?”
“How about this? I’m not asking you to patrol every three days. Just going out once a week would be enough. What do you say?”
Su Chen’s heart sank. ’He’s that desperate?’
After a moment’s thought, Su Chen immediately replied, “No problem. I won’t make things difficult for you.”
“Excellent! I knew the Director’s student would be considerate of the Inspectorate.” Pan Yu’s face immediately broke into a wide smile. “That fellow, Old Qin, was too anxious to even come talk to you himself.”
“Well, I have nothing else, so I’ll be leaving.” Pan Yu truly seemed to have come only for this, leaving as soon as he had achieved his goal.
Once in the elevator, his smile gradually faded. ’Still too young.’
’I remember Pan Yu’s class is Shadow Concealer.’ Su Chen shut the door, already calculating. ’I have to get clear information on this class.’
As it happened, that wouldn’t be difficult for him at all.
’As for the patrol? Like hell I’m going.’
…
Su Chen trained day and night without interruption. Several days passed before he was finally disturbed.
He opened the door and welcomed Fatty Sun inside.
“My friend, with your kind of perseverance, you’d succeed at anything.” Fatty Sun offered his usual flattery before taking out a metal case. “The Potions you asked me to buy: ten vials of Black Flame and twenty of Spiritual Light.”
’I need to speed up my Sky Splitter Warrior progression. Once I reach Tier Two, these Tier One Potions will be useless, so I’m reducing my stock of Black Flame.’
“Thanks.” Su Chen took the case. Fatty Sun then produced a stack of papers and whispered, “This is the intel on the Shadow Concealer class.”
“This is everything I could dig up by asking around discreetly. I can’t just pull up more specific class information directly.”
“I appreciate it, Brother Sun.” Su Chen took the documents. He wasn’t really concerned with the formal class information, but rather its specific abilities.
Flipping through the documents, he casually asked, “What’s our section chief like?”
“Qin Cheng?” Fatty Sun sneered. “A master of graft and extortion. He also has a foul temper and is always chewing out the people under him.”
He paused, his brow furrowing slightly. “Did he give you trouble? I can go have a word with him.”
“No, just curious.” Su Chen shook his head with a chuckle. “What about the deputy section chief?”
Old Sun thought for a moment. “Pan Yu’s a decent guy, actually. He has a sterling reputation in the Inspectorate.”
Su Chen nodded, indicating he understood. Seeing him so absorbed in the documents, Fatty Sun couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity:
“Aren’t you trying to advance to Gale Hunter? Why are you asking about Shadow Concealer? That’s just a Tier Two Middle-Level class.”
Su Chen explained, “I’m asking for a friend on the squad. She just advanced to Messenger, didn’t she? She’s thinking about aiming in this direction, so if she gets a chance to advance later, it’ll save her some effort.”
Fatty Sun’s beady eyes darted. “Zhou Li?”
“Mhm.” Su Chen continued to carefully peruse the documents in his hands.
“Lucky you,” Fatty Sun said, unable to hide his envy. Seeing how absorbed Su Chen was, he had been about to warn him not to get too emotionally invested.
’The gap between Zhou Li and him is just too wide. A fleeting romance is one thing, but anything more…’
But when he remembered Jiang He coming to look for him that one night, he swallowed his words. ’With Su Chen’s experience, he probably doesn’t need me to remind him.’
Feeling a pang of jealousy, he said his goodbyes. Before he left, he reminded Su Chen to burn the papers after he was done with them.
A short while later, flames were curling upwards as Su Chen fed the documents into them, his face flickering in the firelight. ’Shadow Concealer… I need to prepare thoroughly. It’s a shame he’s an insider, which will make poisoning him very difficult.’
He glanced at the artificial lights outside the window, which had already dimmed. On his panel—
Sky Splitter Warrior: 93%
Secret Artifact Master: 74%
Snake Shadow Body Refining Technique—Skilled: 95%
Dawn Meditation Technique—Mastery: 10%
’Thanks to my Red Gold Talent for spiritual aptitude, my Meditation Technique proficiency always increases faster.’
….
“There’s really no obvious anomaly.”
On the top floor, Zhang Hongbo flipped through the investigation files Yuan Chenyang had left behind. He had assumed such a large-scale investigation would have turned up some clues.
But after a careful review, he found nothing.
“How could this be? It was a Deceitful Artifact, after all.” Zhang Hongbo found himself wondering the same thing as Yuan Chenyang.
….
He had just finished burning the documents when, as if on cue, Pan Yu knocked on his door again.
The deputy section chief forced a smile. This time, he skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point. “My friend, when do you plan on going out for your patrol?”
“Patrol?” Su Chen gave him an odd look. “Didn’t I already tell Captain Zhao? Just mark me down as absent.”
’Yuan Chenyang put me in the Inspectorate for convenience’s sake. Old Sun, wanting to look good to his superiors, took care of all my arrangements.’
’But really, perfect attendance or not, it makes no difference to me.’
“This way, we’re doing things by the book, and you won’t be put in a difficult position,” Su Chen explained.
Pan Yu’s expression shifted. He was rendered speechless for a moment before forcing out, “Right. As long as you don’t mind, it’s fine.”
“What’s there to mind? I’m going to leave the Inspectorate sooner or later anyway,” Su Chen said nonchalantly. “I need to get back to my training, so I won’t keep you.”
SLAM!
The door slammed shut, leaving Pan Yu’s face frozen, a muscle in his jaw twitching!
’Damn it! How dare he play me!’
…
A short while later, Su Chen quietly opened his door and went to a small meeting room on the first floor. Hu Xiang was already waiting for him there.
“What’s the situation?” Su Chen asked in a low voice. “What has Pan Yu been up to?”
“Not much,” Hu Xiang said with a frown. “He’s on a simple routine, just work and home every day.”
“I can only tail him from a distance, I can’t do a deep investigation. If you really think something’s wrong with him, you can report it for an internal review.”
“No…” Su Chen shook his head instinctively. ’I can’t. This involves the Space Crystal, not to mention the drained Deceitful Artifact.’
’If those two things were exposed, not even Yuan Chenyang could protect me.’