436: Chapter 433 The Controlled Ones

Lu Jianchuan stood up and put the photos away.

"Since that's the case, let's go look for it." He looked at the others. "Based on the information we were given earlier, the closest aggregation point to this base is a gathering spot for those animals from the New Federation. It's in the suburbs, quite a long way off. Word is there's always been human activity there, but for some special reason, no one interferes—well, it's abroad, forget it. Let's just go straight there."

Shen Mingyuan stood up as well and nodded.

"Sure."

Wei Ziqing didn't say anything; he just rose from his chair and stretched his shoulders. Ye Ouyang looked left and right, then hurriedly followed suit, still chewing on his last bite of pizza.

Lu Jianchuan turned to Cynthia.

"Goodbye. I hope we meet again."

Cynthia leaned back in her chair and raised a hand to wave.

"Alright, goodbye," she said. "Go ahead and search. As for me, my next stop is Antarctica. Perhaps the next time we meet, it'll be there."

The group walked out of the restaurant into the bright sunlight. Parked by the roadside was the vehicle the base had assigned to them—an inconspicuous gray off-roader. Lu Jianchuan pulled open the driver's door, and the others climbed in one after another.

The car started, turned off the street, and headed toward the suburbs.

The city scenery outside the window receded bit by bit; buildings grew shorter, streets wider, until they eventually gave way to vast stretches of greenery and scattered houses. The dot on the navigation moved forward incrementally, pointing toward the area labeled "Wildlife Protection Station."

Soon, they arrived at the location.

The car stopped at the entrance of the protection station. It was surrounded by open grassland, with several low buildings in the distance. Just as they stepped out of the car and before they could head inside, a staff member in uniform came to meet them.

He was blond and blue-eyed, a typical local in appearance, with a businesslike expression on his face.

"This is a private reserve; it is not open to the public." He raised a hand in a blocking gesture, muttering a string of words. A translation came through the earpiece simultaneously: "You cannot enter."

Shen Mingyuan stepped forward. For some reason, he decided to pull his The Authorities ID out of his pocket and flashed it in front of the man.

"We are official personnel here to investigate something."

The man glanced at the ID, then at Shen Mingyuan. His expression didn't change, but his tone hardened significantly.

"Official? Even officials can't commit illegal entry." He crossed his arms and stood squarely in the middle of the entrance. "This is a protected wildlife habitat. You don't have a search warrant, so you can't come in."

Shen Mingyuan was taken aback for a moment.

"We just want to take a look—"

"Even a look isn't allowed," the man interrupted, his voice rising. "This is discrimination! Why is it that as soon as people from other countries arrive, they want to enter our reserve? Do you care about animals? Do you respect the ecology here?"

Another staff member, a Black man, walked over and stood beside him, adding his support.

"That's right! If you try to force your way in, we'll call the police! We'll report you for trespassing and destroying animal habitats!"

Wei Ziqing whispered from the side, "...What's going on here?"

Ye Ouyang scratched his head, looking a bit dazed.

Lu Jianchuan didn't speak; he just glanced at Shen Mingyuan.

"Fine. Since that's the case, we won't enter."

Lu Jianchuan stopped Shen Mingyuan, who still wanted to argue, and turned toward the car. Shen Mingyuan opened his mouth but ultimately said nothing and followed. The four of them got in, started the engine, and slowly drove away from the protection station entrance.

The staff members stood there watching them leave until the car turned a corner and disappeared from sight.

Lu Jianchuan drove for half a kilometer before parking the car under some shade by the roadside.

"Get out. We're walking back."

The four of them got out and retraced their path, crouching down in a patch of low shrubs on the perimeter of the protection station. From there, the outlines of the buildings were clearly visible.

Lu Jianchuan squatted behind the bushes and lowered his voice.

"We can't use force against civilians. But we can observe secretly first to confirm the situation. If this really is a New Federation stronghold, then these people are either unaware or they're accomplices. If they're accomplices, we go straight in; if not, we wait until later and sneak in."

Shen Mingyuan's eyes lit up. He pulled a small pair of binoculars from his backpack and held them to his eyes.

"Let me have a look."

He adjusted the focus and observed the activity inside the protection station through the lenses.

The view swept across the exterior walls of the building. Through an open window, he saw the scene inside—

The group of staff members was standing in the lobby.

They weren't moving around or talking; they were just standing there. Motionless, like statues. The blond man from before, the Black man who had backed him up, and several other uniformed people were standing neatly in the center of the lobby, facing the same direction, looking at something unknown.

Shen Mingyuan was stunned for a moment and continued to stare.

One minute passed. Two minutes. Five minutes.

The group was still standing there, perfectly still, not even whispering to one another. They just stood bolt upright like a squad of soldiers awaiting inspection.

"Are they still standing there like they're in time-out?" Shen Mingyuan lowered the binoculars, a strange expression on his face. "This isn't normal, is it?"

Lu Jianchuan took the binoculars and watched for a while too.

"...It is indeed a bit abnormal."

Ye Ouyang scratched his head from the side.

"Could they be... controlled?"

Wei Ziqing shook his head, his tone tinged with doubt. "Controlled? When they were stopping us earlier, that tone and those expressions seemed so real. They didn't look controlled at all."

The group looked at each other.

"It's fine, I'll head over there."

Shen Mingyuan stuffed the binoculars back to Lu Jianchuan, stood up, and patted the dirt off his clothes.

"You guys keep observing from here and see if they really are being controlled. When I go over, I'll pretend I dropped something at the entrance. I'll just find an excuse."

Lu Jianchuan nodded.

"Be careful."

Shen Mingyuan waved them off, crawled out from the bushes, took a circuitous route, and walked toward the protection station entrance.

He walked at a leisurely pace, like a tourist taking a post-meal stroll. As he neared the entrance, he slowed down and began looking around on the ground as if searching for something.

Through the binoculars, Lu Jianchuan stared at the door.

When Shen Mingyuan was about seven or eight meters from the entrance—

There was movement inside.

The blond staff member, who had been standing bolt upright in the lobby like a statue, suddenly seemed to be activated by something. His body jerked slightly, and then he turned around with an extremely stiff posture and began walking out. His movements had a puppet-like clunkiness, every step appearing as if it were being pulled by invisible strings.

He passed through a door and entered the outer corridor.

The moment he crossed that threshold, the stiffness vanished. His shoulders relaxed, his gait became natural, and his facial expression shifted from a blank void to a look of slight impatience.

He pushed open the door and leaned halfway out.

"Why are you back again?"

He shouted something at Shen Mingyuan. The sound couldn't be heard from a distance; they could only see his mouth moving. His expression was vivid, exactly the same as when he had blocked them before.

Shen Mingyuan also said something, gesturing toward the ground as if looking for something. The man spoke a few more words, Shen Mingyuan nodded and circled around again, finally spreading his hands and turning to walk back.

The man watched him walk away and closed the door.

Then he walked back through the corridor and crossed that door again—

As soon as he returned to the lobby, his entire person froze again. His movements halted, his expression disappeared, his steps stopped, and he walked bolt upright back to his original position, stood still, and became motionless.

Just like the others.

Behind the bushes, Ye Ouyang took a soft breath.

"They really are being controlled..."