Chapter 452 - 448: Looking for Trouble

"Ms. Ning," a young woman called out in a sweet voice. She then leaned in close to Xie Ning, demonstrated a small Space Blade she had made, and asked her some questions she didn’t understand, her face blushing.

For example, why her small Space Blade couldn’t cut through harder objects.

And how to generate several, or even over a dozen, Space Blades at once.

Xie Ning began to explain her own understanding and control of the Space Ability.

Soon, a circle of attentively listening Space Ability Users had formed around her.

When Gu Chen arrived with Secretary Chen, this was the scene that greeted them.

His beloved girlfriend was submerged in a sea of people, her figure completely obscured.

’How annoying.’

’My girlfriend is so popular, I don’t know what to do.’

"Ah, Xiao Gu." Secretary Chen patted his shoulder with the look of a gratified elder. "Kid, when it comes to luck, if you claimed to be second, no one would dare claim first."

’Where did he find a girlfriend like this? The Old Gu Family must be waking up from their dreams laughing...’

"Old Chen, what are you trying to say? Are you looking down on me? Am I not outstanding enough?"

Secretary Chen was momentarily speechless and shot him a look. "I’ve never met anyone with thicker skin than you!"

’Praising himself for being outstanding. So smug.’

’Although... it is the truth. Hmph!’

Gu Chen blinked his charming eyes and said with a straight face, "If you’re not shameless, you’ll never get a wife."

"Back when you were courting Grandma Chen, your level of shamelessness, compared to mine..."

"Bah!" Secretary Chen hurriedly cut the reckless kid off. "Go check on Xiao Lu. A few of those people from R Country are making a scene, and it’s not ending."

"It’s not like we’re the ones who shorted them on Crystal Cores. They can complain to whoever they want. Why are they coming to us about it?"

"And Hu, quickly distribute the notice about the bound wristbands to all zone leaders. We must explain this matter in clear detail to the masses."

"The security of our entire home is at stake, so we can’t afford to be careless."

"We need to make the public understand the gravity of this problem. Be mindful of your approach. It requires patient, step-by-step persuasion so we don’t provoke resistance."

"Yes, yes, Secretary. I’ll get right on it," Assistant Hu replied, nodding repeatedly.

Gu Chen glanced at the old man’s retreating figure, hands clasped behind his back, and chuckled to himself. He then strode quickly over to Lu Wei.

"Prepare for departure. All unauthorized personnel must leave."

The men from R Country, who were in the middle of a long-winded complaint to the leader of Zone A, saw this and cried out in protest, "We’re in the middle of reporting a situation!"

"Depart? What departure? We’re not going anywhere until this is resolved for us."

Gu Chen swept his gaze over the troublemakers from R Country and retorted with perfect enunciation, "Resolve what? You got ripped off in the X Realm’s system store, so why are you causing a scene with our government? Were we the ones who ripped you off?"

"If you need to contact the X Realm, have your Superpower Academy do it. Hassling us is useless."

Matsubara Daiichi had worked in Country C for years and understood a little Mandarin, but when Gu Chen spoke quickly, he couldn’t keep up. He had no choice but to turn to the young translator.

Qian Tao nodded obsequiously and scurried forward to translate for the men from R Country.

Matsubara Daiichi and the others glared furiously at Gu Chen. "You tell him this concerns the welfare of all humanity across the globe!"

"There’s a problem with the back end of the bound wristband’s system store. This isn’t just an issue for us from R Country."

"None of our citizens have reported this issue to us," Gu Chen said impatiently. "It’s just you few from R Country, nagging endlessly."

"The Global Superpower Academy told you to bind those wristbands, so if there’s a problem, you should report it to the source. Don’t just grab a random person off the street and start making a scene."

"What did he say? What did he say?!" another man from R Country next to Matsubara Daiichi demanded, grabbing an agitated Qian Tao.

Qian Tao froze for a moment, then quickly translated Gu Chen’s words.

"Is this how the government of Country C handles problems?!"

"And don’t you forget, the Global Superpower Academy sent a team to help your government rescue people at Gushang Base!"

"Exactly! In the spirit of friendly cooperation, you shouldn’t be treating us like this."

"Excuse me, I’d like to interrupt." Gu Chen cut into the R Country men’s squawking conversation with a cool tone.

"Regarding the search and rescue at Gushang Base, that work is now being handled by our special operations team. As for why the Global Superpower Academy insists on sticking their noses in," Gu Chen tilted his head, his face expressionless, "I find that quite surprising myself."

"Our government has repeatedly declined the Global Superpower Academy’s offer to join. The Academy is the one insisting on participating; it’s not like we begged you to come on this mission with us."

"So I hope you understand the hierarchy here."

’If he had a choice, Gu Chen wouldn’t have wanted to bring so many people along.’

’When it comes to missions, it’s not about numbers; it’s about having an elite team.’

’What good could possibly come from taking a bunch of dumbasses on a mission?’

’It would just end in failure.’

’He had originally planned to just take Team A, ride his girlfriend’s coattails, and everything would have been perfectly fine.’

But after assessing the situation at Gushang Base, the higher-ups decided to send a larger force.

After all, Gushang Base was comparable in scale to the Capital and had a massive population.

Too few rescuers would mean the operation wouldn’t proceed smoothly.

Adopting a "people first" policy, the government went all out, deploying basically every elite unit they could spare.

As for the Global Superpower Academy, they insisted on joining the operation under the pretext of a "Gushang Base Environmental Research Project."

They claimed they wanted to study the sandstorm environment, sync the data globally, and raise awareness about the threat these storms posed.

In short, after a series of high-minded justifications, the government reluctantly agreed.

But there was one condition: Team A had to be in command.

"What’s he saying? What’s he going on about now?!" Matsubara Daiichi and his men, utterly furious, turned to glare at the young translator.

The young translator, Qian Tao, hurried to translate, his lips trembling, barely able to keep up with the speed of Gu Chen’s sarcastic delivery.

"Wait, do you speak our R Country language?" one of Matsubara Daiichi’s companions exclaimed, the realization dawning on him.

"Why can’t you just talk to us directly?!"

’Why go through this whole charade?’

’Every time we finish chattering in our own language, this young man seamlessly fires back at us. Doesn’t that prove he understands our language?’

Gu Chen gave them a deadpan look. "Sorry. Just because I can understand you doesn’t mean I can speak it."

"Alright. Since you’re not ready to depart with us, you can just withdraw from this operation. Stay here and keep arguing about the system store. We’re leaving."

"Hey, wait, wait, wait!"

"Captain Gu, don’t be in such a rush." Li Weide emerged from the crowd, a smile on his face.