Chapter 230: The Out-of-Control Enforcer

Wu Chang pretended not to notice Lei Mengde and methodically searched for intelligence.

His method of gathering intelligence was neither like Booker and Colton's, who wheedled and hunted for suspicious clues, nor like Veronica's, who acted directly and brutally interrogated for information.

His method of finding the assassin was to wait by the stump for a rabbit.

First, he located a Saint Song Corporation manager active on Duonaojie, followed him from behind, and used the man he had chosen as bait, waiting for the assassin to appear.

The method of waiting by the stump for a rabbit was inefficient and highly random, but it had one advantage: it made it easy for Lei Mengde to approach him.

The target Wu Chang was currently watching was named Martin, a black man with greasy dreadlocks and a thick gold chain.

At this morning's emergency security meeting, Mo Ke divided Wildo City into over twenty zones based on the assassin's crime areas, activity range, and attack times, categorizing them as low, medium, and high risk.

Among them, Duonaojie was a medium-risk zone, and Martin was the intelligence department supervisor responsible for investigating that area.

As a former agent, Martin was a professional in intelligence and security.

He could wear a tailored suit, transform into a social elite, enter high-rise buildings, and deliver business reports to hundreds of people in flawless old London accent; or he could be just as he was now—dreadlocks, tattoos, thick gold chain, with two f**ks tucked into every sentence.

Anyone seeing Martin now would think he was a street trash, the kind with three generations of pure bloodline, and no one would link him to Saint Song Corporation's Level Seven supervisor.

Unless someone had already obtained his file, knew his appearance and traits, and, based on personnel distribution maps, roughly knew his activity range tonight.

Like Wu Chang.

After he agreed to help the Anquan Force search for the assassin, as one of the operation's leads, he received the list of Anquan Force personnel involved in this operation.

Using Martin's intelligence, he pinpointed Martin; Lei Mengde, trailing behind Martin, used him to pinpoint Martin.

But Martin himself knew nothing of any of this.

He continued playing his role, pulling two crumpled bills from his pocket and buying a small bag of goods from a black brother in the alley.

He generously gave half the bag to the dealer, then waited until the man was high, and began casually probing for information.

Due to federal laws requiring protection of citizens' privacy, even in a large city like Wildo, there were still vast areas unmonitored by surveillance cameras.

These drug dealers, living at the bottom of the alleys, were living cameras.

Most had grown up in this neighborhood since childhood and possessed extreme sensitivity to strangers.

Meanwhile, their life at the bottom made them exceptionally skilled at self-preservation; when danger struck, they had many ways to hide and avoid detection.

Their skin color was their camouflage; squatting in shadows, as long as they didn't show their teeth, no one could spot them.

Based on Martin's experience, these people often provided unexpected leads.

For instance, the high-on-drugs black man before him revealed that three days ago, his cousin had gotten drunk, fallen into a trash bin, and passed out; in the late night, he woke up and vaguely saw a mysterious figure dragging a big man, interrogating him.

During the interrogation, the name Saint Song Corporation had briefly surfaced.

Martin suppressed his inner excitement and asked tentatively: "Could you introduce me to your cousin? I heard Saint Song Corporation people are looking for him, and the bounty is substantial."

The dealer sneered: "You want me to be an informant? All those Saint Song dog bastards deserve to be slaughtered."

Martin said: "I have connections. Providing this lead earns you sixty thousand federal credits."

The dealer immediately pulled out his phone: "Wait, I'll call my cousin right now—bounty split 60-40, minimum 70-30, less than that and forget it!"

The dealer had just pulled out his phone when a noose suddenly dropped from above, wrapping around his neck; the next moment, a masked figure in black clothing yanked the rope from above, hoisting the dealer into the air like a flag.

Martin sensed something wrong, reached for the gun clipped to his belt, but the masked man kicked it away before he could draw it.

Martin prepared to engage the masked man in hand-to-hand combat, but when he looked up, he met a pair of deep pupils—he felt as if drowned in the ocean within those eyes, losing control of his body.

The masked man searched Martin's body, finding two more guns, a combat dagger, and a small high-energy smart grenade.

"You don't need to go through the trouble of finding me—I'll come to each of you myself."

At that moment, Wu Chang's True Self, who had been following Martin, suddenly seemed to realize something was wrong and rushed into the alley, shouting at the masked man:

"Stop!"

Seeing Wu Chang True Self rush in, the masked man did not stop—he pressed his pistol against Martin's forehead and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Martin's head exploded on the spot.

Wu Chang appeared enraged by the masked man's action—he blocked the alley exit and roared:

"Assassin, you won't escape today."

Lei Mengde, masked, looked at Wu Chang True Self and said calmly: "Is this how you speak to your savior?"

Wu Chang frowned: "What do you mean?"

Lei Mengde said: "Need a hint? Two nights ago."

Two nights ago was precisely when Wu Chang and the others entered the instance dimension.

Seeing Wu Chang's expression change, Lei Mengde knew he remembered, and continued:

"If I hadn't released the 'Salted Fish' in time, you wouldn't have escaped so easily that night. That was the only completed specimen I brought out of Saint Song's lab—I risked everything to save you."

When Feiguang had hunted Booker and the others, Wu Chang had been hiding nearby; as Lei Mengde said, if the fish-shaped Degenerate Monster hadn't blocked Feiguang, Booker and the other two would have been dead that night.

Wu Chang was surprised—he hadn't expected Lei Mengde to have seen the players from the very beginning.

And from Lei Mengde's tone, this encounter wasn't Wu Chang luring Lei Mengde—he had deliberately sought contact.

Interesting.

Wu Chang fell silent for a moment, then looked at Lei Mengde solemnly and said: "You saw everything?"

Lei Mengde shrugged: "Honestly, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd have thought some film crew was shooting a movie."

"Controlling plants, turning your body into mist, moving faster than lightning, killing Degenerate Monsters unarmed without high-energy weapons—you outsiders all possess extraordinary skills. The ones in Saint Song Corporation who underwent psychic stimulation are nowhere near your level."

Wu Chang said nothing, silently watching Lei Mengde, waiting for him to reveal his purpose.

Lei Mengde continued: "If I'm not mistaken, you're two groups—the other group holds absolute superiority, and you four are being hunted by them."

Wu Chang nodded: "You can think of it that way."

Lei Mengde did not expand further—he shifted focus abruptly to Wu Chang True Self.

"I'm curious about you—could you tell me how you bypassed Saint Song Corporation's automated defense system and infiltrated Xiao En's home?"

Wu Chang: "Just like what you saw, walk straight in."

Lei Mengde: "Then you guys are currently working for Xiao En?"

Wu Chang nodded. Seeing the conversation steered toward the intended direction, Lei Mengde's smile grew brilliant.

"But do you know, the guys who came after you that night also work under Xiao En. They've been performing brilliantly these past two days, closing a major order — they're the hottest new talents at Anthem Corporation lately."

Wu Chang frowned, as if hearing this for the first time. "How could that be? Are you sure?"

"The world is sometimes this small — two groups who are enemies of each other actually working under the same person." Lei Mengde's tone grew increasingly composed, as if he already had Wu Chang in his grasp.

"But five fingers still have different lengths and thicknesses. The people chasing you are riding high at Anthem Corporation right now, deeply valued by Xiao En, with a promotion just around the corner; you guys can only hole up in back alleys, blindly searching for an assassin that even Anthem Corporation can't track down."

"Tell me, if this goes on long enough, and one day your two sides meet, who will Xiao En side with?"

On one side, a money tree that can help Xiao En generate massive performance; on the other side, workhorses who do nothing but dirty and tiring work.

Any fool would know who he'd pick.

Lei Mengde activated his ability toward Wu Chang, while stepping closer to Wu Chang, lowering his voice, and speaking in a beguiling tone:

"Your enemy is at Anthem Corporation, and my enemy happens to be at Anthem Corporation too — the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Why don't you and I join forces, take down Anthem Corporation together, and deal with your grudge along the way."

Lei Mengde's hypnosis ability was unstoppable in the instance plane, but against Wu Chang, whose willpower reached 154, it simply wasn't enough.

!

The hypnosis power was so weak it didn't even register as a check against him.

He was quite tempted by Lei Mengde's proposal of cooperation — in fact, today's bringing of Buck and the others to lure out Lei Mengde had been with this very intention in mind.

But Lei Mengde's current attitude didn't satisfy him. It was time to let Lei Mengde know who the one in charge of this cooperation was.

Mimicking Lei Mengde's tone, he said: "Is there a possibility that if I grab you and hand you over to Anthem Corporation, our value to them would exceed those people's?"

Lei Mengde was startled by the failure of his hypnosis. He, who had already closed to within two meters of Wu Chang, slowly retreated backward.

"I advise you not to do that. I came with good faith; picking a fight with me will only benefit Anthem Corporation and the people hunting you."

Wu Chang: "Wanting to leave now — too late."

A flash of Jin Guang behind Wu Chang — he took out the Golden Throne and dragged Lei Mengde straight into the Kingdom of Gold.

Lei Mengde only felt his vision blur, and when he came back to his senses, he had already gone from a dim alley to a stretch of sea with heavy dark clouds and surging waves.

Beneath his feet was a three-meter-long life raft — his only foothold.

Let alone escaping, any slightly larger movement on his part could capsize him into the sea from the wind and waves.

Not far from him, a golden throne floated on the sea surface. Wu Chang's true self sat on the throne, watching him frantically struggling to control the life raft.

Lei Mengde was numb with shock. He knew he had fallen into an illusion, but this illusion was just too realistic.

Whether it was the sea wind blowing on his face, the cold seawater all around, or the slap he gave himself across the face — everything was that real.

He had received professional training and was also an expert in hypnosis; he had always believed no one understood illusions better than him.

It was only today that he realized the illusions he'd played with before were child's play.

In the illusion conjured by Wu Chang, he tried thirty ways to break free from the illusion, including but not limited to self-hypnosis, cognitive anchoring, interfering with the illusion, and self-harm — but none of these methods worked.

Having tried every method without success, he could only choose the last way to break free from the illusion.

That was death.

No matter what illusion, it was built on the premise of deceiving consciousness. If the deceived consciousness was made to die, no matter how real the illusion, it would collapse.

Watching Lei Mengde pull out a handgun and press it against his own forehead, Wu Chang couldn't hold it in anymore. Forgetting about striking a pose, he teleported in front of Lei Mengde in an instant and slapped the handgun flying out of his hand.

"I brought you here not because I really want to hand you over to Anthem Corporation — I just want to tell you, don't try those little tricks of yours on me. The most important point of cooperation is mutual equality and honesty."

Lei Mengde caught Wu Chang's meaning. He struggled to steady himself and said:

"You mean you're willing to cooperate with me?"

Wu Chang said: "Of course, just like you said — we share the same enemy."

Actually, upon learning that Lei Mengde had seen players descend into the instance that night, he had entertained the thought of eliminating Lei Mengde, throwing the corpse to his main body, and trading it for Anthem Corporation's authorization.

But when Lei Mengde opened his mouth to propose cooperation, this thought was dismissed by him.

Because his title "Perfectionist" had reacted — a hidden side quest had triggered.

Wu Chang said: "It's just you and me here, no need to worry about being overheard. We can have a proper talk. What exactly is your real purpose in going against Anthem Corporation?"

Lei Mengde hesitated for a moment, then finally decided to trust Wu Chang.

Mainly because the situation was stronger than he was — his proudest hypnosis ability had been crushed by Wu Chang beyond recognition, and Wu Chang and the others had extraordinarily powerful physiques. Even if he broke free from the illusion through suicide, he'd find it hard to escape today.

He could only choose to trust Wu Chang.

He took a deep breath. To express his honesty, he took the initiative to remove his mask.

"I'm Lei Mengde, a dual agent for the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Inland Revenue Service. My current cover identity is the assistant of the tycoon Morez."

Wu Chang frowned. "So you came to investigate Anthem Corporation's tax issues?"

Lei Mengde first nodded, then shook his head, and said:

"Yes and no. In recent years, large batches of weapons produced by Anthem Corporation have appeared worldwide, including in many countries isolated by federal trade. Among them are plenty of expensive high-energy weapons — all smuggled goods, untaxed, and the volume is huge, far beyond what ordinary middlemen could handle."

"The Inland Revenue Service suspects Anthem Corporation of serious tax evasion, so they sent me to Wielde City to investigate all of this."

"But I have another layer identity — I'm actually an agent the Central Intelligence Agency planted inside the Inland Revenue Service. You know, although we're all federal agencies, we're not of one mind; planting moles in each other is perfectly normal."

"The Central Intelligence Agency took this opportunity to have me simultaneously investigate the progress of Anthem Corporation's manufactured Pristine Arms, and if possible, to steal some classified technology."

"So I have the backing of both the Central Intelligence Agency and the Inland Revenue Service."

Wu Chang roughly understood what Lei Mengde meant, but this didn't solve his problem. He asked:

"If you're only here to investigate taxes and steal technology, then why do you frequently assassinate Anthem Corporation's executives?"

Lei Mengde laughed freely and said: "Because I'm now a rogue agent."

Wu Chang asked: "What do you mean?"

Lei Mengde said: "With the support of the Inland Revenue Service and the Central Intelligence Agency, combined with my ability, things progressed far more smoothly than I imagined. Not long after arriving in Wielde City, I found a way to infiltrate Anthem Corporation's important laboratory."

"There, I saw an employee of Hymn Company, forcibly transformed into a Disqualified Monster. Only then did I realize that all the conspiracy theories had been true all along — the Disqualified Monsters really were manufactured by Hymn Company."

"Do you know what that discovery meant for a resident of Seed Town?"

"It meant that, as long as I could expose Hymn Company's true face and make them pay the price, I could cast aside everything I had, trample every rule, abandon any bottom line!"

A prompt popped up before Wu Chang's eyes:

"Hidden Side Quest: Help Lei Mengde complete his revenge, expose the truth of the Seed Town tragedy of that year, and stop the conspiracy Hymn Company is truly carrying out. No penalty for quest failure. Accept the quest?"

(End of this chapter)