Chapter 279: Are You Guys Really a Proper Cooking System?

[DING! Detected that Host has completed the hidden quest—Investigate the Truth Behind the Expired Nutrient Liquid. Reward received—Unlocking the Mysterious Mall.]

Shen Lu: !

’Mysterious Mall?!’

’Is this the same Mysterious Mall I asked about before, the one the system shut me down on with a "permission denied" message?’

Shen Lu immediately wanted to end her possession and take a good look at this Mysterious Mall.

’I’ll see for myself just how mysterious it is.’

[Host, friendly reminder: items in the Mysterious Mall require reputation value to be redeemed!]

Generally speaking, whenever the system proactively gave a reminder, it was best to listen.

This was a lesson Shen Lu had learned from her long experience with the system.

Shen Lu asked, "What the heck is reputation value? And how do I get it?"

[Simply put, Host can think of reputation value as accumulating good karma. The more good deeds you do, the more reputation value you’ll obtain.]

The corner of Shen Lu’s mouth twitched. ’Isn’t this just asking me to be some great philanthropist?’

Shen Lu said, "Are you guys really a legitimate culinary system? Why do you need me to do good deeds and accumulate karma?"

[We are indeed a 100% legitimate culinary system, Host. The items in the Mysterious Mall are all extremely precious and an absolute steal for their price. You’ll understand once you take a look later.]

In that short amount of time, Gong Tianhua had already left Gao Weineng’s office and was striding purposefully toward his own.

’The secret research on the transformation agent wasn’t his project alone. Now that things were exposed, he had to get in touch with that person. Otherwise, what awaited him was life in prison!’

’That person had to protect him. If not, he would drag them down with him!’

Gong Tianhua pushed open the door to his office. With a sweep of his eyes, he noticed something was wrong.

"What happened?" Gong Tianhua asked.

"I don’t know. After the blood draw, your student suddenly fainted and crushed all the test tubes."

Fu Cheng wore an indifferent expression and his tone was cold, but the arm holding Shen Lu was incredibly stiff. "Little Deer is a bit hemophobic. I told her to close her eyes and rest, but I didn’t expect her to fall asleep."

’He didn’t know if this lie, so full of holes, would fool the man. If it didn’t, he had no idea what he would do.’

Normally, Gong Tianhua would have definitely questioned them in detail, but he didn’t have time right now. He needed these irrelevant people to get out quickly.

His office had no surveillance cameras, which made it convenient for phone calls.

"I’ll have Liao Guang arrange for your return." Gong Tianhua waved his hand dismissively and sent a message to Liao Guang, instructing him to take the three of them away.

The moment they left the office, Shen Lu opened her eyes.

"Fu Cheng," she said, feigning weakness. "How did I fall asleep?"

She had been possessing Gong Tianhua, so she knew what lie Fu Cheng had told. Acting her part now came as second nature.

Fu Cheng played along just as smoothly. "You were probably just a little tired."

"How could I be sitting on your lap? What if I was hurting you?" Shen Lu had Fu Cheng stop, then used the wheelchair for support as she stood up.

Liao Guang was struggling to carry Qi Zhixian by himself. He propped the student against the wall and said to the other two, "Wait here for a moment. I’ll go get someone to help, then I’ll escort you out."

Shen Lu and Fu Cheng nodded obediently. "Okay."

Liao Guang hurried away.

Shen Lu quickly sent a message to Fu Cheng on her Light Brain.

Shen Lu: Can you detect how many cameras are nearby? Can you make them stop working for five minutes?

Fu Cheng looked at Shen Lu, his gaze heavy.

Fu Cheng: What are you planning to do?

Shen Lu: I don’t have time to explain. Five minutes. Or four would work too.

Fu Cheng pressed his lips together. Fu Cheng: Three minutes. That’s the longest I can do.

Shen Lu: Okay!

There was only one surveillance camera outside Gong Tianhua’s office, and Fu Cheng found it easily.

This type of camera couldn’t be destroyed by force, or it would trigger an alarm in the monitoring room. Fu Cheng split off a wisp of his superpower to cut the signal feed, and before the alarm could sound, he replaced it with a several-second-long video loop he’d recorded with his Light Brain.

This didn’t require too much of his superpower, but it demanded precise spiritual power control. It was within Fu Cheng’s tolerable limits, but it was ultimately just a diversion and couldn’t last for long.

Shen Lu glanced at him, asking with her eyes: ’All set?’

Fu Cheng nodded, signaling that she could proceed.

Shen Lu immediately pulled out the Nanometer Super Realistic Mask and put it on. Three seconds later, the charming young girl was gone, replaced by a white-haired, furious-looking Gao Weineng standing before Fu Cheng.

Before the look of astonishment could fade from Fu Cheng’s face, Shen Lu had already used a facial scan to enter Gong Tianhua’s office.

As the Director, Gao Weineng naturally had access to the Deputy Director’s office. With the help of the Nanometer Super Realistic Mask, Shen Lu also entered without any issue.

Gong Tianhua was in the middle of a phone call when he heard the door open. He turned his head and saw, to his surprise, Gao Weineng.

"What are you doing here?" Gong Tianhua had no choice but to pause his call.

Shen Lu stealthily activated her Light Brain’s recording function and simultaneously used her five-minute live broadcast permission, selecting the entire population of the Imperial City as her audience.

She had actually wanted to include the entire planet’s population, but the system wouldn’t allow it, saying the broadcast range wasn’t that large.

"Gong Tianhua, don’t you think your actions show a complete disregard for human life? I just saw the report. In just two or three short months, the number of accidental deaths has exceeded one hundred thousand! You’re a scientific researcher, not a butcher!"

Shen Lu did her best to channel Gao Weineng’s persona. As she spoke, she walked toward Gong Tianhua and, when he wasn’t looking, sprayed the True Heart Potion onto the back of his hand.

’So he saw the report and stormed over to lecture me?’

Gong Tianhua wasn’t suspicious. In his eyes, Gao Weineng was just an old fool who threw his seniority around, treated trivial matters like royal decrees, and was always spouting righteousness and morality. It would have been strange if he *hadn’t* come to chew him out after seeing those reports.

However, Gong Tianhua didn’t want to waste time arguing with him. He planned to just feign compliance and placate the old man to buy himself some time to figure things out.

"So what? If you want results, there will always be sacrifices!"

But as the words reached his lips, they somehow became something else entirely.

"Aren’t they just some low-class scum? They’re the vermin of the Imperial City. For them to contribute to the cause of scientific research before they die means their deaths weren’t entirely in vain."

Shen Lu was enraged. "Gong Tianhua, are you even speaking like a human being?! For your own selfish desires, you secretly developed illegal agents and mixed them into a pharmaceutical company’s expired nutrient liquid. You used innocent citizens as your test subjects! Do you know how many people died without a clue, how many families were torn apart? Not only do you show no remorse, but you spew nothing but twisted logic. You are an utter disappointment!"

Gong Tianhua frowned. He wanted to say something to ease the tension. He didn’t know what was wrong with him today; in a moment of carelessness, he had blurted out his true feelings.

"Gao Weineng, don’t stand there acting all high and mighty. Need I remind you how many test subjects died when you were developing Nutrient Liquid No. 5? If it wasn’t ten thousand, it was at least eight thousand, wasn’t it?"

"You wasted so much manpower and resources just to develop a nutrient liquid that was replaced less than two years after it hit the market. What I’m making now is a great agent that will allow all of human society to take a huge leap forward. It’s their honor to be able to participate."

"Get lost, you old bastard! The sight of you pisses me off!"

"If you don’t scram now, you’ll be the first to get the next batch of the agent. We’ll see if you evolve into a mutant beast or just drop dead on the spot!"

...