Chapter 350: Trap

"Boom!"

A minotaur as tall as a small building swung its thick arms, instantly smashing the house in front of it to pieces. Two inner world residents who hadn't managed to escape in time were sent flying.

"Roar! Moo!"

The minotaur roared at the sky, trampling everything around it.

Scenes like this were unfolding in more than one place across Muke District; they sprang up in every corner like stars in the night sky.

"The prelude is here."

Tianji smiled and spread his arms, like a musician on a concert stage:

"Starting today, the public will realize there is only one way to break the status quo: rebellion."

...

...

Muke District Law Enforcement Bureau.

Yan Jing sat in a break room in his identity as Mao Si. Beside him was Zhou Mo, who had already been stitched into a corpse garment.

Opposite him, Zeng Qing took a few deep breaths and slowly looked away. She had spent over ten minutes staring, but she still couldn't spot any difference between the Zhou Mo in front of her and the one from before.

"Are you sure he's dead?"

When Yan Jing first brought Zhou Mo in, Zeng Qing had been badly startled. Even after staring for several dozen minutes, she simply couldn't tell that this Zhou Mo was a corpse.

Not until Yan Jing told her.

"I've told you over and over, lady."

Yan Jing scratched his ear with a paw.

"Is your age catching up with you?"

"..."

Zeng Qing clenched her fists.

No wonder Zhou Mo and the others had mentioned Chen Xiaojing wanting to kill this cat back then—the way it spoke was beyond annoying.

Although his tone of voice was completely different from a certain someone's, the level of obnoxiousness was exactly the same.

She had no idea how the two of them had hooked up.

"So how did you do it?"

Zeng Qing had asked Zhao Jiucheng to bring a polygraph, a fingerprint scanner, and a retinal scanner. She had even run a vital signs test, only to find that the Zhou Mo in front of her was indistinguishable from a living person.

"What do you care how I did it?" Yan Jing crossed his legs. "Shouldn't you just do whatever Mr. Luo says?"

"..."

Zeng Qing felt stifled, but she couldn't say a word.

"Right, did you manage to get the transfer key for Zhou Mo's underground assets?"

She suddenly remembered something and looked at Yan Jing.

"No."

Yan Jing shook his head.

The transfer key was a method used by the Peace Heavenly Kingdom to guarantee asset security. Much like the Information Component, it had never been cracked; only the original owner of the key knew it and could use it of their own volition.

This was also the difference between this operation and the last one.

Last time, obtaining Chen Xiaojing's assets had required a long buildup before she "willingly" transferred them.

But this time was different. With Zhou Mo's personality, he would never willingly hand over his underground assets.

More importantly, Zhou Mo would soon find himself caught in a vortex of public opinion. At that point, his assets wouldn't be a priceless treasure, but a death warrant.

Whoever took them over would be asking for trouble.

Killing him was simply easier.

"Fair enough." Zeng Qing thought for a moment and nodded.

Evidently, she had figured out the crux of the matter as well.

Looking at Zhou Mo, she hesitated to speak, finally letting out a sigh.

What kind of situation was this? In just one short month, the Four Masters Society had been reduced to half its members.

"So when do we proceed with the next step of the plan?"

Zeng Qing listened to the booms and roars coming from outside the window.

Zhao Jiucheng and Jia Wei had already taken people to deal with various areas, but this was clearly only the first stage of the incident.

The feral awakening wasn't contagious; only those who drank Happy Water exhibited the symptoms. Without any follow-up, the Law Enforcement Agency was capable of resolving everything within a few hours, even with the simultaneous outbreak.

But the truly terrifying part was the second stage of the incident: the fallout.

Once it reached that stage, the situation would rapidly evolve from a terrorist incident into a society-wide crisis.

"When the conflict begins," Yan Jing said.

Intervening before the conflict started would, at best, only suppress the initial sparks; it wouldn't eliminate them.

Of course, Yan Jing had no intention of eliminating them anyway.

...

...

Up on the rooftop.

Tianji stood up, finally hearing the sounds he had been waiting for.

Some middle-class residents walked out of their houses. Holding up placards and LED signs, they shouted slogans demanding that the bionic species be driven out of their country.

"The verse is here."

The corners of Tianji's lips curled up.

"Let the fires of ignorance burn."

Some people even started beating the bionic species in the streets. Faced with the 'rich', those bionic species mostly just covered their heads and scurried away, not daring to fight back in the slightest.

Even if a small fraction did fight back, they would quickly be subdued by the combined efforts of the 'rich'.

In Tianji's eyes, a set of scales seemed to appear. The lower and upper classes stood on opposite ends, maintaining a precarious balance.

At this moment, those scales were gradually tilting toward the upper class.

But this wasn't the result he wanted.

The result he wanted was—for the scales to snap.

As for how many people would fall off the scales in the process, he didn't care.

...

...

"Doctor Li."

In the Law Enforcement Agency's break room, Yan Jing called for Li Zhiyuan.

"Director Cat." Li Zhiyuan nodded.

"Is everyone relatively stable?"

"Most are fine," Li Zhiyuan said. "There are some who are worried about their families. After all, as you know, it's very chaotic outside right now."

Online, the hype around that post about the "Genetic Defects of the Bionic Species" was growing ever more fierce. It already showed signs of spreading from Muke District to the rest of the nation, and similar posts were springing up endlessly. Logically speaking, the Muke District Media Department should have stepped in to assert control by now.

However, because freedom of speech was highly valued in the Peace Heavenly Kingdom, the Muke District Media Department had no mandatory jurisdiction over the media.

This was why the current situation was spiraling out of control.

"Mr. Luo told me you have a number," Yan Jing's eyes flickered. "One that can reach the person who helped you."

"I'm... not sure if this number still works."

Li Zhiyuan knew Yan Jing meant the number he'd dialed when he was helping everyone escape the Sanitarium.

A man wearing a black formal suit had descended from the sky back then, helping them kill all those burly men from the Wasteland.

"Where did you get that number?" Yan Jing asked with a smile.

"A mutual aid website," Li Zhiyuan said. "You can write down your troubles and upload pictures, audio, and even video there."

"Could you show me the website and the account?" Yan Jing said. "This is also Mr. Luo's intention, of course."

"This... shouldn't be a problem."

Li Zhiyuan was unaware that Yaoguang and Yan Jing had fought back then. He had only vaguely heard that Chen Xiaojing had been sent in by Mr. Luo, and that Mr. Luo was the person who had been passing him notes all along.

So in his view, the man wearing the black tailcoat and Yan Jing likely shared similar ideals.

At the very least, they were both good people.

After Yan Jing got the number and website, he switched his consciousness over to Luo Sheng.

He found Zeng Qing, called in the technical personnel, and then dialed the number.

He could have just sent Xiao Xin to look. Xiao Xin had seen Yaoguang that day and memorized his scent, but the process wouldn't be simple.

Using a real-world analogy, Xiao Xin was equivalent to a courier. If you gave it a rough address and a target, it would make the delivery very quickly.

If you only provided a target and not an address, it could only conduct a search. Even though its speed was vastly faster than a normal courier's, that would still take time.

And since Xiao Xin was currently keeping an eye on Pops, it was better for Yan Jing to try calling the number himself to see if he could pinpoint the address first.

To his surprise, the moment he called, it went straight through.

"Hello?"

A familiar voice rang out from the other end. He could basically confirm it was Yaoguang.

"Don't you ever change numbers?" Yan Jing asked.

"..."

The other end went silent for a few seconds before Yaoguang's cold voice came through. "Why are you calling?"

"What are your thoughts on this current incident?" Yan Jing chuckled.

Yaoguang's heart skipped a beat. He hadn't expected Yan Jing to know this incident was connected to the Seven Stars, but his tone remained calm. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think we can make a deal," Yan Jing said.

"I will never betray the Seven Stars." Yaoguang's expression was composed.

"Of course it's not betrayal." Yan Jing's voice was like the chirping of cicadas at night, leaving Yaoguang with a trace of annoyance yet no desire to hang up. "We're solving a problem. I think we can meet."

...

Several hours later, Yaoguang left the meeting place.

He hadn't expected the man to truly just be making a deal with him.

The other party wanted him to kill someone.

Song Haozhe of the Four Masters Society.

And the other side had offered a reward he couldn't refuse:

Disclosing the situation at the Law Enforcement Agency.

The Law Enforcement Agency already knew that the instigator behind this incident was Tianji.

This piece of information alone was already worth its weight in gold to the Seven Stars.

He just couldn't figure out how that bunch of useless gluttons could act so swiftly this time, instantly realizing it was the Seven Stars' doing and immediately locking onto Tianji.

In addition, the man had also told him the method the Law Enforcement Agency planned to use to break the deadlock:

The Law Enforcement Agency had already negotiated with the leader of the Intellect Brain. Tomorrow, as soon as the sun rose, the leader of the Intellect Brain would appear and state that this was a frame-up against the bionic species he had deliberately engineered.

Because the entire underground faction of the Intellect Brain consisted of Smart Seeds, the situation that had been inflamed into warfare would rapidly de-escalate.

At that point, the Law Enforcement Agency would step in to assert control.

As for why the Law Enforcement Agency wasn't making a move right now: first, they didn't want the infamy of silencing the public; second, they were deliberately giving everyone an outlet to vent their emotions before striking back swiftly, accurately, and ruthlessly.

"Zhao Jiucheng..."

Yaoguang had never expected that the youngest Chief of the Muke District Law Enforcement Bureau hadn't just relied on Zhou Mo to rise to his position, but actually possessed such audacity himself.

After confirming no one was tracking him, his figure flickered as he dashed rapidly toward the distant high-rises.

The other side had said a search grid for Tianji's position was currently being deployed.

Any communication device could lead to Tianji's location being exposed.

He could only choose to make personal contact to deliver the news to Tianji.

What he failed to notice was that, in his blind spot, a bare-bottomed little brat was wobbling along right behind him.