Chapter 1934: Identity Under Suspicion
A large-scale inspection meant to establish the authority of the Supervision Department suddenly showed signs of escalating conflict after the deaths of an inspector team leader and a black organization boss.
The Supervision Department's inspection was still ongoing, but the black organizations mixed in the West District had already brought in players to hold the line at the fastest speed possible—they were more worried that the Supervision Department would take this opportunity to kill their own people to frame them, and the death of that team leader seemed to be just the beginning.
The Supervision Department naturally felt this pressure as well, especially the lower-level inspectors, who had already begun questioning the purpose of this large-scale inspection.
Without orders from the East District headquarters, the West District Supervision Branch should not have stirred up such a major conflict. Some worried that outer zone players were sabotaging things from behind the scenes.
As this doubt deepened, team leaders across the various Supervision Department branches had to take it seriously. The intensity of the block-by-block inspections did not weaken, but they had begun to let armed robots and aircraft handle the main inspection tasks as much as possible, while ordinary inspectors were responsible for coordination and support. This served two purposes: first, to accommodate the inspectors' feelings, and second, to prevent outer zone players from secretly targeting inspectors.
As for self-inspection targeting outer zone players, it was basically impossible. First, even if they found something, they most likely couldn't catch them, and might even pay a greater price for trying. Second, outer zone players came and went constantly—there were always players around, but they couldn't possibly inspect everyone all the time.
However, not inspecting didn't stop them from suspecting others. In particular, Wang Kai, who had shot the black organization boss, suddenly became the target of suspicion and exclusion, and even Xu Huo and Han Cong, the two new members, were implicated—after all, the incident happened after they arrived.
"Isn't this bullshit?" Han Cong sensed the wariness other inspectors showed toward him, both openly and covertly, and couldn't help saying, "The attacks on inspectors didn't just start happening in the last two days."
"Can't rule out outer zone players doing it either," Xu Huo offered a reasonable speculation. "What if outer zone players deliberately attacked inspectors to get into the Supervision Department? Otherwise, why hasn't a single person been found after all this time?"
Han Cong had no response and couldn't help muttering, "Could he really be a player?"
Who could say for sure? The knife that killed Team Leader Jiang appeared out of thin air. There were actually quite a few players around them at the time—some from the West District, some from outer zones. The purpose of the attack naturally shouldn't have been just to kill a black organization boss; it was more likely to provoke a melee between the Supervision Department and the black organizations, throwing the West District into chaos.
As for motive, any party could have one—the East District, the Rebel Army, outer zone players—all had ample reasons.
"Nobody's resting tonight," Li Song said to everyone as the inspection neared its end. "Overtime."
Most people had no objection to working overtime. Gathering them in the Supervision Department building at this time was actually for their protection.
However, this inspection wasn't completely without results. The Supervision Department caught two Rebel Army members, both ordinary people. After their suspicious behavior was noticed, they were immediately subdued—no time to resist, no time to commit suicide.
Interrogating the Rebel Army members wasn't their job, but from fragments of conversation among the senior inspectors, it was clear that the Rebel Army had become more active recently. Perhaps they were plotting something big.
"Let's go." Han Cong called Xu Huo over. Their task was to process the black organization members and resisting ordinary people who had been captured during the chaos.
The basic procedure was: first, force them to confess whether they participated in the inspector attack. If no results, beat them up and ask again if they knew who did it, or who they'd heard mention it. Still no results? Fine, beat them again, then continue asking why they caused trouble for the Supervision Department during today's inspection—this was a question that didn't need an answer, because resisting had offended the Supervision Department's authority, so they were going to be taught a lesson regardless.
The interrogation lasted less than half an hour, and two people had already been beaten to death.
Trained inspectors were different from ordinary people. Their physical skills might not be nimble, but they were much stronger than others in the West District, because the East District regularly distributed evolution agents to inspectors.
Evolution agents, which might have already been popularized to every ordinary person in other districts, were precious items in the West District—they were also the East District's means of controlling the West District. If any black organization here could get enough evolution agents, people from old to young might all be willing to die for them.
Unfortunately, even though some black organizations had players, they also controlled the gates, trying their best to prevent more people from joining in on dividing the cake.
When a district first began evolving, a large number of evolvers would appear. These passive evolvers were the main force of the first batch of players.
Then the government or individuals would take blood from evolvers who hadn't taken player evolution agents and inject it into ordinary people, forcibly causing them to evolve. This was the main force of the second batch of players.
Compared to the first batch of evolvers, those in the second batch who couldn't adapt to evolution would face a certain probability of death or degeneration. It was more like opening a blind box—get a good one and you could board the preliminary train; get a bad one and it was a dead end.
After the first batch of players was born, people in the evolving district would still gradually become evolvers, just not in the explosive manner of the beginning. These people who slowly became evolvers over time were actually considered somewhat unstable elements for a relatively stable society.
Taking the West District as an example, with so many children, players might emerge from among them in the future. Ordinary people taking gentler, safer evolution agents could achieve the effects of strengthening their bodies and extending their lifespans. But if someone among these people became a player, their starting point might be higher than those who hadn't taken evolution agents. That was why even black organizations tried their best to prevent evolution agents from leaking out—because if the quantity increased, one day their own enemy might become a player.
Therefore, the vast majority of people in the West District were extremely fragile ordinary people. Not only had they never taken evolution agents, but environmental pollution continued to erode their bodies. Many of them were already suffering from illnesses.
"Too fragile to take a beating. I haven't even vented enough!" The old inspector with half an eyebrow missing wiped the blood off his hands hatefully and told Xu Huo and Han Cong to drag the bodies away.
Lin Guang, who had just brought in new prisoners, saw this and came over to help.
They weren't the only ones—bodies were being dragged out of other interrogation rooms as well.
Han Cong couldn't bear to look.
Lin Guang thought for a moment and said, "Actually, don't blame Brother Tong. The reason he hates West District people so much is justified."
"I can't go into detail about the reason, but you'll naturally find out in a while."
Busy throughout the night, Xu Huo's basic tasks were escorting people and dragging bodies. A third of the men brought in had died, while the women were all still alive and locked up—probably to be dealt with later.
After a tense night passed, as soon as dawn broke, Li Song told them all to go home. The new members could rest for a day today.
(End of Chapter)