Chapter 300

Chapter 300: Different Fates for the Same People

As he spoke, he ignored Tang Qing’s murderous glare and turned to Zhuang Mian, asking:

“Captain Zhuang, does your plan include this?”

“The plan has changed; you’re not qualified to know.”

Now it was Tang Qing’s turn to be shocked—was the leader of the gang actually acquainted with the Clean-up Team captain?

And what was this arrangement about? If the gang leader wasn’t qualified to know, then who was?

With no time to think further, Tang Qing instinctively planned to act decisively—if he killed them all, the credit would still be his.

Thinking this, he immediately pulled the trigger, only to find that his gun had jammed at that moment.

“Damn it…”

He cursed under his breath and pulled the gun’s slide, and sure enough, a shell ejected from the side of the gun.

Pulling the trigger, it jammed, ejecting a shell, repeating three times, Tang Qing, even with an officially diagnosed intellectual disability, realized something was wrong.

“Useless; all of it is right here.”

A voice came from the corner, and for the third time, Tang Qing turned in confusion to find the boy he should have knocked out had released his right hand, and yellow bullets were clattering to the ground.

“Right, right, that’s the expression.”

El’s dirty face broke into a grin. He always felt a deep sense of satisfaction when his opponents underestimated him because of his appearance, only to fall into his hands in the end.

“You three…”

Tang Qing’s voice trembled uneasily, and his legs shook as he moved towards the wall.

His senior could deceive him, the kidnapped child could deceive him, and even the body on the ground could deceive him.

In this midnight sewer, it seemed only the cold wall wouldn’t lie to him.

“I, I…”

Tang Qing wanted to argue more, but he noticed the revived corpse, the tallest of the three, had placed a finger to his lips as if advising him—not to speak yet.

“How do you plan to handle this?”

El’s gaze had lazily shifted away from Tang Qing, looking to Zhuang Mian to discuss how to deal with the current situation.

“Tang Qing, graduate of the Security Academy, Class of 51, during the Clean-up operation against the Heart Snatcher’s headquarters in the sewer…”

Zhuang Mian spoke to himself, pointing at El’s waist.

The boy immediately understood, throwing the worker’s gloves from his waist to Zhuang Mian.

The Clean-up Team captain caught them steady, put them on his right hand, and then picked up the weapon that Li Rui had tossed aside not long ago.

“Died from stray bullets.”

…

“Stop looking; deal with the scene quickly.”

“Okay.”

El instinctively responded, though he felt this wasn’t something he should be doing.

“You don’t need to do anything; just replace the filter cartridges. I’ll handle the rest.”

In the sewer, the three people still standing had clearly defined roles.

El opened his coat, revealing a stash of filter cartridges in the inner pockets, and began replacing each one for the sprawled peace officers on the ground.

To complete today’s script with minimal casualties, reducing the audience was essential.

And reducing the audience was also an art.

Two days of emergency training had been enough for the peace officers to learn how to wear gas masks.

However, having been long out of practice, they found it difficult to notice the weight difference caused by regular sponges and filter cartridges on the gas masks.

As everyone knows, Dimensional Shift can also be called the "Invisible Hand."

Zhuang Mian was busy setting up the scene, and as the most educated professional among the three, she had to arrange the details closer to reality regarding her own case.

As for Li Rui, he was shooting at his own corpse.

“Bang!”

Just as the three were feeling somewhat relaxed, the sewer suddenly shook violently, and the source seemed to be… the central area of the inner city.

This was not an earthquake; it felt more like something had struck the ground, creating a shockwave.

Zhuang Mian quickly thought of something that had been repeatedly mentioned in textbooks—meteorite impacts.

Damn, their planet couldn’t be that unlucky, could it?!

—

“Last trip, last trip~”

Luke, who was about to finish moving, was in a good mood; the place he found was warmer than he had expected, making this winter much more bearable.

In fact, this last trip could have been optional; those things were not essentials for him, but having them was better than not having them.

Carefully sneaking into the sewer, Luke planned to complete his final move before the night ended.

If it weren’t for the sun rising so early, he could have finished this trip in the morning.

He arrived at his hiding spot, and suddenly, every hair on his body stood on end.

In his narrow hiding place, a shadow sat in the darkness, looking in his direction.

“Long time no see, Mr. Luke.”

A gentle female voice came:

“I am Shi Jin; I wonder if you still remember me?”

“Shi… Jin…”

In the darkness, Luke’s energy arm emitted a faint glow as he pondered this name.

It was not someone he recognized, but he had a vague impression he couldn’t quite place.

What was happening?

Had he angered someone?

Since the other party called his name, it was clear they had come for him.

In that case, a confrontation was unavoidable.

Although Shi Jin couldn’t see the confusion on his face in the darkness, she felt dissatisfied due to his long silence.

What? Can the enforcers be so forgetful?

She had been looking forward to the play that would unfold after their identities were swapped, yet she found that he completely did not remember her.

Luke may have caught many criminals, but Shi Jin had been caught only once up to this point.

Thinking this, she wanted even more to capture him; after all, it was an order from a council member, and the Holy Fire Meow Meow Cult had not opposed it.

“It seems you’ve forgotten me, but that’s okay; you surely remember Ms. Nia, right?”

Shi Jin stood up from a pile of items that could barely be called a seat, and a faint light flickered in her eyes:

“She asked me to ask you why you defected from the spire.”

—

Central Spire, underground.

Lin Qingliu had a very clear goal; he could understand the underground greenhouse farms and the real cattle and horses living on the cyber prairie, but he could not grasp what the floating blocks on the lowest level really were.

His body descended gradually while he simulated El’s appearance, feeling the surrounding materials.

Yes, they were definitely not soil or rock; from about a hundred meters underground, the materials around him were no longer those he could comprehend.

Now filling the space around Lin Qingliu, these substances felt hard, yet there was an indescribable sensation.

It felt like… it felt alive.

But Lin Qingliu knew very well this was impossible because he couldn’t sense any biological field around the materials, a field that even bugs possessed, representing the existence of life.