Chapter 169: Abnormal Cooperation Rate, Pinghai Tower!

Perhaps it was because the mental support that had sustained his spirit was finally complete, or perhaps it was because all the information-type skills that had been draining his mental energy had reached full progress.This sleep was exceptionally restful for Cheng Ye.

He began sleeping at six-thirty in the morning and didn't leisurely wake until four in the afternoon.


The moment he got up, his bones and muscles throughout his body made "crack" sounds.

The sound was low and sustained, as if a fierce tiger was roaring within his body.

Tiger Force.

Almost complete?

Cheng Ye was quite surprised. He moved his limbs a couple times. Last night after he finished grinding two information-type skills, he had mounted Tiger Force and Mobile Shooting again.

What surprised him was that despite being delayed several days without practice, Tiger Force's progress hadn't stagnated but instead advanced by leaps and bounds.

After sleeping through this night, the original 60% progress had jumped to at least 85%, clearly about to be completely mastered.

"Hmm, could it be that learning these ordinary skills also has a built-in cooldown period?"

"No, it should be that the body's absorption speed has an upper limit. Once this limit is broken, learning speed becomes slower and slower. After a period of buffering, absorption can accelerate again?"

Cheng Ye pondered silently. This unexpected discovery was like a pleasant surprise falling from the sky.

Standing in the room, he slowly moved his body, adjusting his breathing rhythm according to Tiger Force's force application method.

With each breath, he could feel the hidden power beneath his body's surface becoming increasingly magnificent.

His current strength could no longer be measured by ordinary New Martial standards.

Due to the physical enhancement brought by Wild Grass Physique, his strength was far more terrifying than ordinary four-strength martial artists, almost comparable to martial artists who had opened six ordinary meridian gates.

And once equipped with "Iron Body" and entering pseudo-Dao Embryo, his strength could even compete with true Dao Embryo realm masters.

However, in this era where transcendents existed, martial prowess was ultimately just a means for self-defense and health preservation, ensuring one's life safety.

To truly gain status, one ultimately relied on brains and methods.

After moving around until his body was slightly sweating, Cheng Ye picked up his defense communicator. The screen showed two missed calls, one from Sang Hezheng, the other from Big Dragon.

He first called Sang Hezheng back. After a brief pause, the call connected.

"Inspector Cheng, I've already completed the applications for all vehicle certificates this morning. Do you need them registered under the inspection station's name, or as an independent operator running them yourself?" Sang Hezheng's voice came through, still as efficient and direct as always.

"What's the difference?" Cheng Ye asked. He really wasn't familiar with vehicle operation procedures.

"Since you're renting batteries from the inspection station and don't involve battery wear issues, there aren't those miscellaneous approval procedures. The difference isn't major, mainly just charging cost differences."

Sang Hezheng patiently explained, "If registered under the inspection station's name, charging procedures go through the inspection station. You'd need to process power cards through the inspection station's logistics procedures, then pay monthly at the inspection station based on charging units. Perhaps you inspection officials get discounts, but you'd need to ask logistics about specifics."

"If it's independent operator procedures, I can help you apply for charging cards here. Charging would then go by market rates. Current summer charging costs are... every 100 units of electricity corresponds to 15 contribution points. First time requires pre-storing 1,000 units, with charging directly deducted."

"Wait, let me call logistics to ask."

Cheng Ye hung up on Sang Hezheng as an excuse, his fingertips tapping lightly on the defense communicator screen as he rapidly calculated costs.

This independent charging price was, honestly speaking, somewhat expensive.

The six vehicles' total battery capacity was 1,050 units. Even if each time they charged with 10% remaining, they'd need to replenish 945 units. At market rates, each charging would cost 140 contribution points.

This didn't even include vehicle wear and battery rental fees. It was equivalent to making two or three round trips to satellite cities, with charging alone costing this much. The cost was really too high.

So expensive!

Compared to civilian electricity being completely subsidized, with residents not paying a penny.

After calculating, Cheng Ye immediately felt the pain.

Not to mention this was still summer. Come winter and spring, low temperatures would cause battery range to shrink, increasing charging demand, with electricity prices at least doubling. The expense would only be more exaggerated then.

Of course, the benefits of market-rate charging were also obvious.

No need for approval procedures, you decided how much to charge yourself. As long as it wasn't exaggerated enough to attract attention, no one would care.

But if registered with the inspection station, monthly settlement records might reveal anomalies to others.

"How about three vehicles as corporate accounts and three as independent?"

Cheng Ye pondered, dialing the inspection station's public number and transferring to the logistics department.

As expected, the inspection officials' benefits didn't disappoint.

The logistics staff member on the other end was exceptionally polite, "Inspector Cheng, if you register your vehicles under the inspection station's name, each vehicle gets 200 units of free electricity monthly, with excess charged at 10 contribution points per 100 units."

This was a benefit. After explaining this, the logistics staff introduced a bunch of regulatory restrictions.

Summarized, there were two points worth noting.

First, all vehicles registered under the inspection station's name had the possibility of temporary requisition. If damaged during requisition periods, inspection officials had to handle repairs themselves, the price for enjoying benefits.

Second, registered vehicles could use the inspection station's Gate D for entry and exit, without needing to queue for inspection at Gate A like ordinary merchant companies. If carrying materials, as long as it didn't involve malicious reselling or exploiting loopholes, the inspection station wouldn't take a cut.

"This is good!"

Cheng Ye immediately decided.

Even if his SUV was privately registered, he could still use Gate D to enter the buffer zone.

The two armed pickups were originally for protecting transport vehicles anyway. Going to queue at Gate A at the buffer zone entrance didn't matter.

Most importantly, transport vehicles were for hauling cargo. The inspection station itself had many transport vehicles, so the probability of requisition was low but armed pickups were different. If requisitioned during emergencies and damaged, dealing with repair disputes would be too troublesome.

He immediately called Sang Hezheng back and explained his decision.

Sang Hezheng readily agreed and said it would be completed by eight o'clock that evening.

The implication was that after eight tonight, he could go pick up the vehicles.

After hanging up, Cheng Ye breathed a sigh of relief, "The monthly 200 free units aren't bad, and occasionally I can use the 10-point rate to charge the Collector."

"Plus monthly billing can ease financial pressure somewhat."

Thinking that he finally had legitimate qualifications to use fast charging, Cheng Ye felt much more settled.

But opening the panel to look:

Great, sleeping time hadn't even managed to charge 1% of electricity.

Pressing the bedside lamp switch produced no response. The buffer zone had lost power again.

From seven in the morning to seven at night, these 12 hours saw basically citywide blackouts.

"Just one hydroelectric station is fine for supporting the buffer zone, but now with so many satellite cities..."

As industrial zones ran at full production and satellite cities multiplied with continuously inflowing refugees, the originally ample power supply was completely insufficient.

"Looks like in the future, each satellite city will need to build its own biogas power stations and solar power stations to fill electricity gaps, otherwise industrial production simply can't expand."

But these were matters for later. Cheng Ye dialed Big Dragon's number.

"Sir!" Big Dragon's voice on the other end carried some urgency. "That fifth person we were watching seems to have sensed something wrong. He disappeared from his residence last night and still hasn't returned. Should we send people to search?"

"No need to search," Cheng Ye wasn't surprised. Someone who could hide under his nose for so long was naturally more clever than those four captured ones. It was normal for him to run now.

"Just keep watch over those four. Any movement from them?"

"Rest assured! We've arranged over twenty militia members in shifts around the detention room. Not even a fly could get in. Definitely no one can rescue them!"

Big Dragon's voice carried certainty. "It's just that these four are too tight-lipped. Elder He interrogated them for another half-night, but they still just say they came to look around and won't say anything else."

"It's fine. Tell Elder He not to stay up all night. I'll come over shortly."

Cheng Ye hung up, carried a water bucket to the washroom for a simple cold shower, changed into clean clothes, grabbed his backpack, and walked toward the shopping center.

Last night's storm was quite powerful. Zone B-7 hadn't been spared either. Low-lying areas beside the road were full of accumulated water.

The murky water surface floated with yellow mud and scattered trash, looking particularly messy.

More frown-inducing was that many sewer openings overflowed with yellow sewage. An acrid, putrid smell drifted over with the wind, making people instinctively cover their noses.

Several community personnel were using hooks to gradually clear blockages from sewer openings.

Black sludge was shoveled out and piled roadside, waiting for subsequent removal.

"When the pedestrian street is built in the future, this kind of situation absolutely cannot happen."

Cheng Ye looked at this scene and shook his head inwardly, though he had no way to solve it.

The entire buffer zone's underground pipeline network was connected. Zone B-7's network was just a small segment. Even if blockages here were cleared, if other areas remained blocked, sewage would still overflow here.

To truly solve the problem required leadership from above to completely tear out and replace the entire buffer zone's old pipeline network. But this project was too massive.

It would take at least half a year to a year, possibly several years.

Only when the buffer zone's scale expanded and was upgraded would there be sufficient manpower and resources to completely renovate the pipeline network.

What could be done now was just having people regularly clear blockages, minimizing sewage overflow frequency as much as possible.

Cheng Ye quickened his pace, avoiding deeply flooded road sections, and quickly entered the shopping center.

It was still the same place where Jiang Chuan had been detained and interrogated, now converted into a temporary detention facility.

A circle of armed militia surrounded the entrance, black gun muzzles pointing in all directions. Even ventilation windows had guards. Unless a transcendent personally arrived, rescue would be absolutely impossible.

"Sir, we've tried every method possible, but still no luck," Big Dragon hurried over, his face full of difficulty. "These four aren't like ordinary assassins, more like deeply hypnotized dead soldiers. Whether using torture, offering benefits, or tricking them by saying their accomplices confessed, they're completely unmoved, just repeating those same few phrases."

Cheng Ye nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the detention room.

Four bound people sat in the corner, thick iron chains wound from arms to calves like wrapping dumplings, circling several times with only their heads able to move slightly.

The exposed wrists and ankles were covered with whip marks of various depths, some places still scabbed with blood.

You could tell that Elder He, responsible for interrogation, had tried his best but still couldn't extract valuable information.

"Pull one out randomly. I'll interrogate personally," Cheng Ye's tone was calm without the slightest ripple.

"Yes!"

Big Dragon immediately turned, signaling militia to open the compartment door and drag someone out by the iron chains.

The improvised interrogation room was right next to the detention room, a space of over ten square meters with an iron table in the middle and two chairs.

The one dragged in was a young man who looked twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with a fair, clean face and not a callus on his hands, more like clerical personnel who stayed indoors year-round.

Who could imagine this person was actually a genuine Dao Embryo realm master?

During capture, he had fought Big Dragon to a draw, finally surrendering only when dozens of guns pointed at his head.

"What's his name?" Cheng Ye sat behind the iron table, fingertips lightly tapping the surface.

"He says his name is Wang Qing. Won't answer anything else," Big Dragon stood to the side, still gripping half the iron chain in case the other party suddenly erupted.

Cheng Ye nodded, signaling Big Dragon to unlock Wang Qing's upper body chains.

As the iron chains clattered to the ground, Wang Qing moved his shoulders and actually showed some pleasure on his face. Not a trace of prisoner's panic, instead as comfortable as if arriving for an appointment.

"What's the purpose of watching me?" Cheng Ye asked directly.

"Sir, I just came to take a look," Wang Qing replied without hesitation, still the same repeated excuse, his tone as flat as saying "the weather's nice today."

"Such a stubborn mouth."

Cheng Ye chuckled, changing direction, "I'm curious. Since you have thoughts about me, why didn't you shoot when I was alone? Or plant bombs in my room? At the very least, you should know how to poison, right?"

"You could slip into the buffer zone silently. You can't possibly be unable to obtain a gun or a packet of poison, right?"

"Sir, I just..." Wang Qing was about to repeat his old line but was interrupted by Cheng Ye.

"Then what do you want to see?"

"I..." Wang Qing paused, showing a strange smile. "I want to see what abnormality you have on you."

"Did you figure it out?"

"No," Wang Qing immediately shook his head. "So I need to look more, see more clearly."

"Fine, then how do you need to look?" Cheng Ye stood up, walked in front of Wang Qing, looking down at him from above.

Crack.

Just as the two were less than half a meter apart, Wang Qing's expression suddenly froze, like a jammed machine stuck for two seconds. Then his eyes became vacant again, and he started cycling that old phrase: "Sir, I just came to take a look."

Cheng Ye returned to his seat thoughtfully, waving to Big Dragon, "Switch people."

Over the next half hour, Big Dragon successively brought the other three in for interrogation but whether facing a burly man with a fierce face, a middle-aged man with sinister eyes, or someone who looked like a bottom-level laborer, all four answered identically.

Just came to look, wanted to see the abnormality on you.

Once pressed for details, they would "freeze and restart" like Wang Qing, falling back into the cycle.

"Sir... should we use torture?" Big Dragon watched Cheng Ye fall silent and couldn't help suggesting in a low voice.

"No need. This might be a special kind of brainwashing hypnosis that requires special methods to resolve."

Cheng Ye shook his head gently, his gaze fixed on the panel.

Exactly the same as when first captured, all four people's cooperation rates remained at 100% without any fluctuation.

No matter how he questioned or disrupted the rhythm, their cooperation rates after restarting remained unchanged, like programmed software that only recognized the one answer of "came to look."

Were they assassins like Master Tian?

Or were they influenced by some Wish-Guarding Transcendent skilled in mental manipulation?

Or had they been infected by some special infection source that could distort consciousness?

Regardless of which method it was, if he could find this way to keep people at 100% cooperation rates, future searches would be much simpler.

After thinking, Cheng Ye didn't immediately find someone to ask, nor did he try using information search to break through.

Instead, he took out the Xinghuo communicator from his backpack and began trying to search for related information.

After familiarizing himself these past days, he had discovered this thing's usefulness.

Not only could it search for things of unknown origin, it could also perform contextual questioning.

Its internal data processing logic was far stronger than the defense communicator.

Like right now.

Cheng Ye typed in the search box: "When encountering interrogation subjects who only repeat 'Sir, I just came to look,' what's the situation?"

The screen quickly showed a prompt: "No matching records found. Please supplement more key information."

He thought for a moment, reorganized his language, and entered a more specific description: "During interrogation, interrogation subjects only repeat fixed phrases in response to any question. When touching on key information, they 'freeze and restart,' then continue repeating original phrases after recovery. What situation is this?"

This time, the search box didn't give a direct answer but popped up a supplementary information dialog box.

It prompted him to add more detailed information.

"Hey, useful."

Cheng Ye nodded and added all the interrogation details.

After clicking submit, the Xinghuo communicator's screen flickered several times, with a progress bar slowly climbing.

Half a minute later, a black, bolded noun finally appeared in the screen center.

[Pinghai Tower]

"Hey, it really is some organization?"

Cheng Ye's brow furrowed slightly. This organization's naming style was somewhat similar to what Master Tian had briefly mentioned before, the organization he had joined.

Shanhai Tower, Pinghai Tower...

Could these two actually be brother organizations?