Chapter 433 - 388: Agreement and Habit

Chapter 433: Chapter 388: Agreement and Habit

"Guan, you... are you in a bad mood today?"

The next morning, Silver Fox brought Chen Na out from the base as arranged, meeting Guan Tong in a park.

Chen Na was happy to see Guan Tong, but she also quickly sensed that his spirits were a little low.

"Is it because of me...?" 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

Chen Na asked quietly, thinking that the argument she’d had with her mother had made Guan Tong disappointed in her.

Guan Tong shook his head. "Something bad happened, but it has nothing to do with you, Na."

Standing to the side, Silver Fox asked curiously, "For something to make you unhappy, it must be serious."

"It is serious. But that’s not what we’re here to talk about today."

Guan Tong didn’t want to burden the two of them with his troubles. He squatted down to be at eye level with Chen Na. "Na, I heard from your mother that you want to come help me?"

"Mhm!" Chen Na nodded forcefully.

Seeing this, Silver Fox looked somewhat resigned. She had clearly tried to talk her out of it, but Chen Na hadn’t changed her mind.

"Guan, my ability can help you."

"Of course, your ability is very powerful, but I don’t agree with you joining me just yet."

Guan Tong had thought long and hard about how to persuade Chen Na. He had considered making up some excuses, but in the end, he decided to be direct.

Chen Na was young, but not that young. If she were still in school, she’d be a middle schooler—an age where she could see through the hypocrisy of adults to some extent.

Even if a direct refusal would upset Chen Na, Guan Tong believed it was much better than deceiving her with excuses. He had always felt that adults rejecting children didn’t cause much harm; it was the deceit and hypocritical excuses that truly disheartened a child and created a rift.

Upon hearing this, Chen Na’s lips trembled and she looked hurt. "Why? Guan, are you worried I’ll hold you back?"

"That’s part of the reason, yes."

Standing to the side, Silver Fox gave him a strange look, no doubt thinking it wasn’t very good of him to be so blunt.

"Na, what you need to do now is learn how to protect yourself, not run around everywhere with me."

"I am learning! We have training at the base every day!"

"She’s right," Silver Fox added. "Even though her ability is the support type, she still undergoes combat training every day. This girl might look harmless, but she’s not. With her current skills, relying only on the physical enhancement from her Psychic Power and without using any Ability Items, she could easily take down several ordinary adults bare-handed."

"That’s far from enough." Guan Tong didn’t take the chance to praise her. Instead, he gave Chen Na a condition.

"Na, if you want to join me, you have to meet one condition."

"Hey, hey," Silver Fox interjected. "Whatever your condition is, even if she can meet it, it’s not certain the base will let her go."

"I know," Guan Tong said.

Chen Na, however, paid no mind to what Silver Fox said and asked happily, "What condition? Tell me, Guan!"

"You know about ’Psychic Power Flow’, right? It must be a required course for training official Ascenders at your base."

"Mhm, we have to practice that every day!"

"When you can use it skillfully in combat against others, I’ll consider letting you join me."

"Okay!" Chen Na agreed in a heartbeat. "You can’t go back on your word, Guan!"

Seeing Guan Tong nod, Chen Na ran off to the side, overjoyed.

Silver Fox crossed her arms and smiled. "It’s hard enough to master Psychic Power Flow just for bodily circulation, let alone using it in complex combat. With Na’s cognitive and learning abilities at her age, it would take her at least six months to a year to achieve that. You’re pretty clever, I’ll give you that."

"I just want her to have the ability to protect herself."

In Guan Tong’s view, if one’s own abilities and items weren’t suited for combat, then they had to master Shi Jingyi’s combat methods to compensate.

"By the way, with you protecting her, does she really need to fight for herself?"

"My protection?" Guan Tong gave a self-deprecating laugh. "My protection isn’t that reliable. In the end, everyone has to rely on themselves."

"...It seems what happened really was serious. For ’Shadow’ to make a comment like that."

Silver Fox didn’t press further. She took out a few items from a storage container.

"Dr. Zhang asked me to bring these for you. They’re container-type Ability Items for storing Flowing Psychic Power."

"Thanks."

...

「Two days later.」

Antu City, Sakura Prayer.

A small farewell ceremony was held at the city’s only remaining funeral home.

Most of the attendees were Sheriffs who knew Suzuki. Everyone was dressed in black, walking solemnly to the coffin to lay down the white bouquets they had brought.

Everyone was heavy-hearted. In this era, relationships between people were difficult to maintain. Even a connection like being coworkers, something unremarkable in times of peace, had become quite precious.

Just then, a figure entering the room caught everyone’s attention. The Sheriffs were all quite surprised.

It was Yoshino, the current Director-General of the Sakura Prayer Sheriff’s Department. He was supposed to be working in Banzhen, so it was a shock that he would come to attend Suzuki’s farewell.

One of the Sheriffs stepped forward and asked, "Director-General, what brings you here?"

"Why wouldn’t I come? Suzuki was my subordinate."

After speaking, Yoshino walked to the coffin and gazed at Suzuki’s face in repose.

In a corner of the room, Guan Tong and Shangyuan Zi were watching.

"The new rules are being announced tomorrow, yet Yoshino, who is already the Director-General, still took the time to attend a former subordinate’s farewell ceremony. It seems he’s a very sentimental person," Shangyuan Zi said.

"..."

Guan Tong was silent.

For the past few days, he had been investigating Suzuki’s case, but he’d hit a dead end.

The short-ponytail woman who appeared on the surveillance footage, signed in as "Wei Huo"—the Strategy Research Room hadn’t been able to identify her either.

Investigations into her appearance, name, and the fingerprints she left when signing in all came up empty.

Guan Tong didn’t think the Strategy Research Room would cover anything up. If they couldn’t find her, it meant the woman had never been registered.

This was hard to imagine, because after the Blood Plague rule was established and North Star entered a state of war, every person living in a city had to be registered.

Even if this woman, like Guan Tong, had chosen to leave the city back then, there was no reason for her fingerprints not to have a match. Fingerprints had been recorded for personal identification files since the peaceful era before the Apocalypse Rules began.

’Has this woman always been "off the grid"? Or was her information erased?’

Either way, the investigation was at a standstill. It would be difficult to find her anytime soon... but Guan Tong wouldn’t give up.

"You two must be the ones who brought Suzuki’s body back. Thank you very much."

After paying his respects, Yoshino walked over to Guan Tong and Shangyuan Zi.

"Suzuki endured too much. Choosing to leave this way might have been a release for her," Yoshino sighed. "She was a good Sheriff, not just because of her Profiling ability, but because she had an empathy that allowed her to embrace others."

"Yes," Shangyuan Zi said. "Her loss is a loss for all of us."

Yoshino glanced at her. Shangyuan Zi was wearing a mask, but not sunglasses.

Yoshino recognized her vertical pupils with a single glance but didn’t say anything.

"Well then, if you’ll excuse me."

Watching Yoshino’s departing figure, Guan Tong said, "When you escaped the confinement chamber, all of Sakura Prayer was hunting for you... He recognized you."

"I know," Shangyuan Zi said. "I plan to stay in Sakura Prayer for a while and investigate here."

"You mean..."

"Suzuki went to great lengths to help us find Mizusawa Chun. Even though there was a massive purge afterward, we can’t rule out the possibility that some people loyal to the Mizusawa Clan survived. If they’re seeking revenge, Suzuki would naturally be one of their targets. Plus, if that short-ponytail woman is one of the Yingqi People, it would make perfect sense that her fingerprints aren’t in the North Star database."

"...Alright."

What Shangyuan Zi said made sense at first glance, but Guan Tong felt it was unlikely.

The nation of Sakura Prayer was severely weakened after the last incident and is now completely dependent on North Star, with almost no ability to sustain itself. Under these circumstances, it would be nearly impossible for someone to secretly enter North Star and locate the rehabilitation center where Suzuki was staying, unless they had inside help.

"Then let’s split up. You stay in Sakura Prayer, and I’ll be in North Star. We’ll investigate separately and share intelligence regularly. However, the new rules are being announced tomorrow, so we should prioritize that."

"That’s what I was going to say," Shangyuan Zi said, looking at Guan Tong. "Captain, I can tell this matter has made you furious... Is this the first time you’ve had to face someone you know passing away?"

"..."

’Probably,’ Guan Tong thought.

Since the era of the Apocalypse Rules began, he had witnessed many deaths, some of which he had even caused himself. But very few of the people he knew, people he was familiar with, had died.

"Maybe it’s better to get used to it sooner rather than later," Shangyuan Zi said, gazing into the distance. "It’s an immense stroke of luck to survive in this era. Our luck, and the luck of those around us, won’t hold out forever."

Get used to it...

’That’s something I’ll never get used to,’ Guan Tong thought.