Chapter 40

In the northern district of Tianmen City, the Two Worlds Safety Bureau's fourth-floor office is a bit larger than the third floor's, but it has only half the staff.

Since all of them are liaison personnel assigned by the Intelligence Bureau to the Two Worlds Safety Bureau, each one is a precious talent.

But in the Two Worlds Safety Bureau, even the most precious talent is just expendable material.

Even if it's a senior figure from the Intelligence Bureau, they're merely a slightly higher-grade expendable, and when overtime is required, they still have to work overtime!

"Today should be a day off... hey! Today is a day off, right!"

"Stop whining; there are no days off when a case is on the line. Organize the information on those shops mentioned in these cases and send it to the captain of Section Six—they're still waiting for a breakthrough."

"And you? What are you doing while I handle this?"

"Me?" The informant gave a hehe laugh, then his face turned grim: "Because of a report from an enthusiastic citizen, I now have to check the information status of over three hundred people, and later I still need to do a deep dive into the network—don't call me unless it's something important."

"You're going to sleep? Don't sleep yet—help me out before bed!"

"Can deep‑net diving really be compared to sleeping? The underlying network of Tianmen City is completely tm spaghetti code—so bad even tm dung beetles could spawn from it. If you take the dive for me, I'll help you out."

"Hehe, you think you can refuse? This is the section assigned by the section chief; it'll be sent to you right away—have a look yourself."

"Remove the auction house at Mirror Surface Market? You might as well kill me—no one's managed that thing for thirty years, it's so special! Has the auction house boss finally owed the mayor money?"

"Wasn't it said the auction house boss is the mayor's son?"

"Wasn't it said the auction house boss is the mayor?"

"Wasn't it said the mayor keeps the boss as a kept man?"

"Huh? Why is the information gap among us so huge—aren't we the elite of the Intelligence Department?"

"Would anyone really go investigate this? The boss and the mayor clearly have nothing to do with each other—people are just curious and haven't bothered to deal with it."

"You were planning to handle it today?! But why do it during a holiday!!"

"I heard you're preparing to deal with that auction house?"

Inside the top-floor office of the Two Worlds Safety Bureau building, the elderly Ma'er Juanzhang, using a magical convenience, gazed upon the mayor whose appearance had not changed in a hundred years, expressing his doubt in a somewhat humble manner.

"I don't understand. Decades ago you said that place had observational value, and over these decades the people traveling back and forth have kept changing, yet it should still be called as you intended."

The city lord of Tianmen City, or rather the mayor, whose true form is a node of the Heart of Terra.

The vast majority of citizens are unaware of this, but that vast majority obviously does not include the Juanzhang of the Two Worlds Safety Bureau.

Although it is a node, it cannot fully represent the will of the Heart of Terra, after all each node is endowed with a distinct intelligent persona, and massive computing power is their main common point.

Tianmen City could develop from a small outpost with only a single star gate into its present form, and the mayor's contribution is indispensable.

"Those coming and going keep changing, yet there are always those who choose to stay; hiring, orders, layer upon layer stack up, vitality grows ever more vigorous, the scale and influence of the auction house also swell, but to my eyes it is merely bloated, redundant data."

"I've been waiting a long time, Stalien."

The mayor spoke calmly; for hundreds of years, since the Juanzhang was young, the mayor I have seen has always been this calm.

"Wait until it finally starts interfering with other observable data, wait until new value is born in the process of its removal—no matter what, it will become nourishment."

"The fruit has already ripened?" Juanzhang asked.

"The fruit has already rotted, but the seed still holds value; the rotten pulp can also serve as nourishment for other organisms."

"" Juanzhang fell silent for a moment, as if chewing on the information, then asked again: "In your eyes, does that thief who stole the star gate key also possess observational value?"

"Evolution requires opposition; opposition itself is value, Stalien," the mayor said, extending one hand toward the Juanzhang, in whose palm appeared a surveillance feed of the enforcement department's enforcers springing into action: "Opposition has already begun—you just haven't found the battlefield yet."

"Do you intend to grant computing authority?"

Tianmen City, this city, is too large.

Really too large.

So large that even with numerous security personnel and order maintainers, let alone enthusiastic volunteers helping each other, they cannot figure everything out within a few hours.

This city also constantly processes hundreds of millions of people per moment; with big‑data tracking support it could theoretically be fully grasped, but aside from the mayor himself, who else has the ability to mobilize such extravagant computing power?

It can be said that precisely because the mayor does not give direct assistance, Tianmen City ends up harboring so many fugitives.

But can we blame the mayor for that?

Besides managing city affairs, does the mayor also have to personally hunt down criminals for the safety bureau and police station?

That is not its duty; it is the safety bureau and police station's own 'incompetence'.

The development of Tianmen City has already surpassed the signals of controllable range——

——the city itself has also become bloated.

And that mayor, that ever‑calm mayor, does not intend to intervene directly.

"No, I will continue to observe." he said.

"Observing the confrontation this city will soon face—this is also a test for the city, a test for all of you."

"For this reason, even the power of the Mita Territory will be frozen in this trial."

After a long silence, Juanzhang replied in a low voice: "" I understand.""

"But may I ask, in this trial, how many people are you chiefly expecting?"

"One thousand three hundred twenty‑seven, although some of them have filled in non‑human species," the mayor said without hesitation, "but they all have the potential to bear fruit."

"That's good," this number, when placed among Tianmen City's total population, is completely pessimistic, but those beings the mayor can look forward to are extraordinary; having heard this answer, the Juanzhang had already considered how to proceed next, and he bowed, saying, "Please excuse my return to work."

"Go on, I will continue to watch over you."

The glow of the magic markings began to wane, the mayor's figure also gradually faded, leaving only the Juanzhang in the office; after a moment of contemplation, he issued an urging order to his subordinates to finish the current work as soon as possible, and then sent out a drafted notice.

Using the Tianmen riot as a precept, all city districts jointly conducted a large‑scale evacuation drill.

Even though the Two Worlds Safety Bureau of Tianmen City has more authority compared to the Two Worlds Safety Bureaus of other cities under the Terra Federation, he still needs to prepare to receive confirmations and even questions sent from others, including the Juanzhangs of the Tianmen City Safety Bureau.

For someone of his age, this is truly a painful process; he doesn't even have time to pay attention to the horse‑girl races that could lift his spirits.

Because Tianmen City's racetrack is responsible for hosting the Champion's Cup, the World Gate Grand Prize, the Arima Memorial, and the February Stakes, the Two Worlds Safety Bureau and the Tianmen City Safety Bureau always have to cooperate with the police to maintain public order, in order to prevent the excessive actions of some fervent transmigrants or even extraterrestrials.

Because of this connection, the three security departments also have close cooperation with the URA Association, which is responsible for the events.

As a Terra person who has inherited the name of Eastern Stalien, the war‑knight, he naturally pays extra attention to the horse‑girls who can be called fellow Kulanta clanswomen—compared to the infamous knight's tournament in his hometown's war‑knight circles, he finds the horse racing events even more to his liking.

But these will have to wait until later.

For now he has already sent out the prepared announcement, while waiting for the communications that will come to question him over his sudden announcement, and at the same time paying attention to the movements of the Execution Section Three.

The Execution Section Three and the Information Section Two were the combination he himself had designated to handle that anonymous report, because the report material was overly abundant, he could almost certainly follow that information to ferret out the mastermind behind the Star Gate riot, thus giving everyone an explanation—before visiting the Mayor, that was what he thought.

But after contacting the Mayor, he believed the test the Mayor expected was a crisis for the entire Heaven Gate City, and such a crisis would not be resolved simply by catching a criminal.

Such a criminal is either an absolutely vicious and heinous offender who is hard to catch, or one who, even if captured, does not diminish his threat because he has already prepared a backup plan, or perhaps merely a pawn pushed out as bait, like a matryoshka doll, with someone else behind him.

No matter which it is, he cannot let his guard down, but at the same time he cannot ignore the 'seeds' favored by the Heart of Terra; he must pay attention to certain sufficiently exceptional talents—this can be discussed later... he thought, his focus still needing to fall on his subordinates' periodically updated report.

The top result was still quite encouraging:

【Confirmed target: extraterrestrial mercenary Mata'er】

【Conducting city-wide search】

【Wanted notice issued and completed】

【Search range narrowed to Terra Street Sunset Boulevard】

It looks like there will be results soon.