Book 4, Chapter 69: Obtain

Chen Chuan drove his car to the industrial area in the southern suburbs of Central City.

This place was different from the main city area. There were no complex neon lights and billboards here. Instead, most of the buildings were large, gray concrete metal factories, and the roads were covered in rails leading to Central City.

Each factory had a domain entity, but the areas were all independent of each other and weren’t entirely connected.

Fang Zhixin said that the information was stored in an independent factory.

Chen Chuan checked the coordinates and the landmarks Fang Zhixin mentioned before stopping at a certain spot.

The sun had started setting. As the evening sun shone on the factories’ metal walls, the light gave the cold, firm metal a gentle, golden-red hue.

In the alley between factories were clowders of wild cats lazing on the warm cement ground. Some of them stared at him from the rails, but they quickly got up and jumped to higher places when he got closer.

Chen Chuan took a moment to identify the place before walking to an old factory. This was an independent maintenance factory, and an elderly security guard stood at its entrance. The implant on his arm seemed to not have been maintained for a long time, because its color was clearly different from the rest of his body. He watched Chen Chuan warily while keeping a hand on his gun.

The man was about the same as Fang Zhixin described, so Chen Chuan stopped when he was about ten paces away and said, “I’m here to grab what you have stored here.”

He checked his watch. “It’s 5:45 p.m. now. It’s the time we agreed upon.”

The elderly security guard remained silent for a moment before walking inside. “Come with me.”

Chen Chuan followed him. While the man was old, his movements were smooth, and he walked quickly. Soon, they arrived in an inconspicuous lounge. The elderly security guard removed the keys from his belt and looked around before grabbing one. He opened the door and said, “It’s inside. You can take all of them with you. There’s a handcart outside. Feel free to use it.”

He left after that.

Chen Chuan went inside. The lounge wasn’t big, only around twenty square meters in size. A bookshelf stood on one side, and next to it was a thick, wide desk. Across from it was a sturdy single bed with a safety helmet and a uniform above its headboard.

There were plenty of books on the bookshelf. All of them were instruction manuals on how to perform maintenance and machinery, but he ignored them and went to the bed to drag out a box from underneath it.

After wiping off the thick layer of dust on it, he opened the box with the password Fang Zhixin had given him. Inside were stacks of organized information about the merged space, along with a can that contained one hundred dev notes, some coins, and a few badges that had great collector’s value.

Chen Chuan knew that the information here contained both truth and lies; it was a misdirection. If he grabbed these, he would definitely be deceived. Instead, he grabbed a unique badge from inside and looked toward the desk before opening its drawer. Inside it was an old, ordinary-looking Realm Pass. This was where the real information was stored.

If he wanted to see what was inside, he needed to touch it with the badge. That was the only way for the Realm Pass to respond.

Chen Chuan put on the Realm Pass and tapped it with the badge. The originally still Realm Pass immediately reacted. Faint light shone out, and Chen Chuan saw rows upon rows of information.

The Realm Pass had been in sleep mode for a long time, so it was really weak. He needed to bring it back and soak it in nutritional fluid for a while for it to display all the contents, which meant that he had to bring it back to read it.

After packing up all the necessary things, Chen Chuan put them all into the box and walked out.

Once he said goodbye to the elderly security guard , he left the factory and returned to his car. Once inside, he cast a glance at the box and wondered whether he should hand it over to the Resolution Department, only to decide not to do it. While the Resolution Department appeared to have no rotten eggs inside, he didn’t trust certain people.

Besides, Chen Bitong had to have had his reasons for keeping the information here instead of submitting them all to the government, and he was going to respect that.

Just when he was about to start his car, he received a call.

“How can I help you, Mr. Ling?”

Ling Jianxing’s voice was really clear in the car. “Lead Investigator Chen, do you remember me telling you that the Linacrox Union wants to do friendly matches with our students? It’s going to happen over the next few days. Would you be free to join it?”

“I don’t think so. I have a mission from the Resolution Department, so I won’t be able to make it. I think that even without me, the university won’t lose to the diplomatic delegation. Besides, you’re there,” Chen Chuan rejected the invitation.

“Alright, then. My offer still stands. I’ll call you again during the friendly matches,” Ling Jianxing said with a smile.

“I look forward to it,” Chen Chuan replied.

Once he ended the call, he looked outside. The sun had set, and night arrived. The factory and street lights lit up the road.

He started his car and drove out back to the city area.

The next day, while Chen Chuan was organizing and reading through the information about the merged space in the Realm Pass, he received a message from Wu Bei saying that United Might’s person-in-charge and the main members would head to the island nations for a business negotiation.

The branch company had stayed still over the past few days, but suddenly, they decided to head out to the island nations. It was right after his operation yesterday. The timing of events made it impossible for him not to think that something was fishy.

He thought of Border Fusion. Just like United Might, they were going to the island nations in October to expand their business. After some thinking, he contacted Yan Yi.

“Miss Yan, you’ve told me that Meng Shu might head to the island nations in October. How confident are you in getting the deal?”

“Very. The Department of Administrative Affairs is providing us with a lot of support. We’ve been negotiating already, and things are going smoothly. While other companies are competing against us, their chances of winning aren’t high when it comes to the business negotiations,” Yan Yi answered.

Chen Chuan understood what she was saying. Border Fusion basically had the deal in the bag, but business competition wasn’t just about negotiating at the table. Other forms of competition also existed, including physical competition that threatened personal safety.

If the main members of Border Fusion died, what had already been settled at the negotiation table would naturally be rendered void. It was because of this that every company had its own combat force.

The Department of Administrative Affairs may have provided them with business support, but Border Fusion had to rely on themselves for safety.

Chen Chuan couldn’t tell what United Might was thinking, but he needed to make sure that Border Fusion got all the necessary protection.

“Mr. Sancheng is familiar with the island nations, but he’s only one man. I’m going to send a trusted subordinate to your side,” he said. He would send Su Wei to Border Fusion. Together, Sancheng Huang and Su Wei could make sure that nothing went wrong.

“Also, I’m going to give you two contact methods.”

He tapped on his Realm Pass and sent a Realm Pass signal as well as two telegram frequencies to Yan Yi.

“The Realm Pass signal and first telegram frequency belong to Gu Haiting of Azure Dragon’s PR Department. If you get in any sort of trouble in the island nations, contact him. Tell him that I asked you to do this.

“The second telegram frequency is for Talu of Single Flow School. She’s a strong Third Limit martial artist. If you sponsor her school, you can ask her to help you.”

Once Yan Yi received the contact methods, she thanked Chen Chuan seriously. “Thank you for supporting the company, Lead Investigator Chen.”

She knew just how great of a help he had given the company by doing this. While Border Fusion had plenty of funds, they didn’t have any martial artists of their own worth any money. The only employed martial artist Meng Shu could truly trust was Aunt Yu.

Her safety could be ensured while she was in Central City, since Chen Chuan was there. Even if he didn’t show his face, he could get rid of most of her problems by sending help, but once she left for the island nations, things would be different. Meng Shu wouldn’t be able to use any of her connections and lose her intimidation factor, since the islanders didn’t know who she was.

With Chen Chuan’s arrangements and Aunt Yu, they would have four Third Limit martial artists with them on this business trip. They were also going to hire some mercenaries from the platform, so they should be able to ensure Meng Shu and her group’s safety.

The most crucial part of this was Azure Dragon. This company and Ocean Development Corporation practically controlled the island nations. With Azure Dragon as a connection, they would have a much easier time moving about the island nations.

“Since I’m the company’s security advisor, this is what I should do. Also, I need to tell you that even if the Department of Administrative Affairs asks you to send people to the merged space, don’t get too involved in it,” Chen Chuan cautioned them.

Upon hearing this, Yan Yi immediately replied solemnly, “I’ll tell Miss Meng about what you said.”

After ending the call, Chen Chuan checked that the intelligence department hadn’t sent him anything and continued his morning training. Ten minutes after he left the Arcane Palace, he arrived at the mooring point in Martial Order District, took his airship, and flew to the ocean.

Training went smoothly. After the morning passed, Chen Chuan watched the gap in front of him slowly close. Then, he put the Frost King Saber back into his sheath. Just then, he sensed something different.

What’s this?

He examined his second self more carefully and found that at some point, his second self had come to possess mental energy.

Until now, while his second self had reached the Third Limit, he hadn’t gotten any mental energy. But now, he was no longer far away from Chen Chuan’s own strength.

If his second self overlapped with him now, the power Chen Chuan could bring out would be much stronger than before. Still, Chen Chuan’s own mental energy was still a step away from perfection.

With his current progress, though, he shouldn’t be too far away from it.

He looked outside. The bright sunlight at the end of September shone through the airship’s porthole and landed on his body as well as his cabin, casting the inside and outside in a dazzling light. He knocked on the cabin’s door. “Let’s go back.”

Soon, the airship turned around in the clear sky and returned to Central City. The sea breeze saw them off.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.