Enforcer Manual
Chapter 703 - 701: Standins Attract Each Other_1

Chapter 703: Chapter 701: Standins Attract Each Other_1

Lu Xiang felt that Song Lan always managed to show his potential as a top crime mastermind inadvertently.

"You actually made Hog Foster believe that the one leaving him was a standin messenger."

She couldn’t figure out how Song Lan pulled it off, but she realized that more and more people had been deceived by Song Lan recently, and those people were no ordinary individuals.

The Angel of Death beside the Archbishop of the Third Neutral Country, the Six Stars rescuer of the United Government, and now even the ruler of the Foster Family had become victims, which made her realize that the promotion of anti-fraud software was urgently necessary.

"If you were in the ’outside world,’ you could probably become the mastermind behind the biggest fraud syndicate."

Lu Xiang was serious.

From her long experience in handling cases, most fraud syndicates still preyed on those with limited access to information, while Song Lan had far surpassed them.

"It was an experiment."

Song Lan said, "Now he can freeze time for about 2 seconds, which is enough for him to handle most dangers."

It was only after meeting Hog that he realized time freeze wasn’t such a strong ability for ordinary people since they didn’t have the invincible Platinum Star by their side.

Take Hog as an example, 2 seconds might only be enough time for him to pull out a gun and shoot at someone.

They still needed Hog to infiltrate the Fisherman’s Club to stay updated on the High-level Parliament’s movements, and indeed, this infiltration brought substantial progress; at least they learned the special name of the botanist Trian, and from the way people like Jock treated her, it wasn’t hard to see Trian’s high status in the hearts of the council members.

Dr. Bai Zhu searched in vain, but it was Medea who provided some information about Trian.

They were once colleagues, albeit in different departments, and since Trian and her team often needed to go to the "outside world" for research, Medea, who was then the director of the external department of Cloud Biological Pharmaceutical, frequently interacted with her.

Even within the company, Trian was an absolute oddball.

Her love for plants had reached the point of obsession, and her dream was to restore the environment to its state before the third war. For this purpose, she initiated several projects on transplanting and regenerating "outside world" plants at Cloud Biological Pharmaceutical.

The company didn’t support Trian’s ideas, but her technology was indispensable. They needed her to obtain certain components from plants for research in other projects.

The last time Medea heard news about Trian was several years ago when Trian and her team went to the "outside world" for fieldwork. After entering a forest, the entire squad lost contact. The company’s higher-ups had contacted the United Government’s action department in the "outside world" for rescue operations, but several attempts all ended in failure.

Later, the company declared Trian dead, and for a long time after, they couldn’t find any botanist who could replace the work Trian did, as few people these days were willing to research these almost invisible plants within the United Government territory.

Cloud Biological Pharmaceutical might still have Trian’s files; the company’s database was in The First Region.

"Jasmine seems to be planning to pay Cloud Biological Pharmaceutical a visit."

Lu Xiang said.

While Hog infiltrated the Fisherman’s Club, Jasmine was not idle either. She planned to contact all Six Stars candidates privately to make them aware of their situation as soon as possible.

The High-level Parliament might handle the others as they did with Yaku.

Yaku heeded Jasmine’s call and was prepared to share his experience to make others aware of the danger.

"One of the candidates is a genetically engineered mutant created by Cloud Biological Pharmaceutical, and just like Fengling, he is hailed as a miracle in the modern pharmaceutical field."

In fact, Song Lan had always been curious about those Ability Users who could approach Six Stars level by physically enhancing themselves because, in his limited knowledge, physical augmentation seemed less impressively powerful than prosthetic implantation or psychic abilities.

It was also proven that Fengling’s strength didn’t entirely come from herself; the Consciousness Entity in her saber was an important source of her power.

Those he knew who had taken the path of "fleshly ascension" weren’t human.

According to Jasmine, the only true physical enhancer among the Six Stars Ability Users who had earned their position purely through physical strengthening was Giant Mountain alone, and her description of Giant Mountain’s fighting style seemed simple and unrefined.

To knock down his opponents with a single punch, that was Giant Mountain’s way of combat.

In Jasmine’s recollection, there hadn’t been an opponent that Giant Mountain couldn’t defeat through hand-to-hand combat.

But whenever Song Lan pictured Giant Mountain brawling bare-chested with war machines like tanks and war chariots, he always found it quite odd.

"I’ve contacted Jasmine, and she said she could ask around about Trian."

Lu Xiang was a woman of action.

As Song Lan pondered over the combat style of the "biopharmaceutical field miracle," she had already communicated with Jasmine, and their next focus would shift to the Six Stars Ability Users who would soon arrive in The First Region.

The bad news was, according to Jasmine, the Six Stars Ability Users weren’t very familiar with one another, had limited opportunities for meetings, usually only coming to The First Region for conferences, and often people were too busy with work to attend. She also revealed that most Six Stars Ability Users were aloof, looked down on everything, and had absolute confidence in their own strength.

Convincing them wouldn’t be easy.

"But I believe you can persuade them."

Lu Xiang looked at Song Lan with firm eyes.

"...Why?"

Song Lan was puzzled. He was not familiar with those Six Stars Ability Users. He also didn’t like dealing with aloof strangers, and being rejected when trying to strike up a conversation could be very unpleasant.

"Because you have the potential to be the mastermind behind a fraud syndicate."

"Old Lu, I feel like you might have some misconceptions about me."

"I don’t think so."

Lu Xiang began speaking from personal experience, "You had me going in circles in the past. If you hadn’t intentionally shown weaknesses, I wouldn’t have known when I’d realize that you were the ’concerned citizen’."

Despite this, she was still affirmative about Song Lan’s willingness to open up to her.

When she first met Song Lan, he was already a master of deception.

"And the Void, Military Intelligence Section Seven and the Counter-Intelligence Department refuse to send people to The Seventeenth Region because they are frightened of the Void to this day."

"It’s a necessary evil."

"But at least it proves you’re good at these things."

Lu Xiang felt that facts had once again proved that those who often talked about "sincerity" were the most deceitful. She considered herself astute, but ever since she’d arrived in The Seventeenth Region, each time she’d been tricked, it had somehow involved Song Lan, "How does the saying go... you’ve come all this way?"

...

That night, Hog Foster made contact with Song Lan again.

After finding out he was a Standin messenger, Mr. Hog had a good night’s sleep for the first time in a while. However, what he hadn’t anticipated was a call from the psychiatrist that sent his newly calmed emotions into disarray again.

"Mr. Lucky, do you think there are other Standin Ability Users in this world?"

"Not sure, maybe there are."

At the time of the call, Song Lan was carefully considering their strategy for conning... communicating with the Six Stars rescuers, along with Lu Xiang.

"Then that means there are."

Hog seemed hardly able to contain his excitement.

"What’s happened?"

"That psychiatrist came to see me again."

"I thought you had already refused her once?"

"Yes, but her reason for seeking me out this time is different. She contacted me privately... She said on the phone that she is also a Standin Ability User, and that this is the first time she’s met another of her kind, hoping we could meet privately."

That was clearly the psychiatrist’s therapeutic technique!

The excited tone in Hog’s voice at the other end of the phone made Song Lan facepalm. He wondered if the man had become senile, not recognizing even the most standard of therapeutic approaches.

He had heard that previously some psychiatrists, in order to bridge the gap with their patients, squat on the ground for an entire morning, playing the role of mushrooms alongside them.

Now, having become a Standin messenger, Hog had turned into a child with a new toy, hardly able to wait to show it off to everyone. He had sent a stream of messages to Song Lan, asking how to develop Standin abilities, and how to maximize the use of those two seconds when time stopped.

The man had become so tiresome that even Song Lan didn’t want to deal with him anymore.

Just when Song Lan thought his refusal to reply to messages would give Hog a hint to back off, the latter called him directly.

Given the timing, he must have contacted Song Lan immediately after receiving the psychiatrist’s call.

The old man was so annoying!

This barrage of messages, was he treating him like Lu Xiang now?

Soon, Song Lan thought of a way to temporarily get rid of Hog. He said, "I read a sentence in that book once, Standin messengers are attracted to each other."

"I see, it makes sense."

Hog said, "Then I’ll go and meet her. I really wonder what kind of Standin Ability User she’ll be."

...

The call was finally over, Hog didn’t send any more messages, but instead focused on the prospect of encountering a new Standin messenger.

"Hog, was he always like this?"

"Of course not."

Lu Xiang shook her head. Regardless of how Hog Foster was portrayed as a joke in recent times, that mostly came from slander by political enemies, which was not entirely credible. But this time, through Song Lan’s description, she realized that Hog’s emotional volatility had reached an abnormal level.

Maybe he truly did have a mental illness.

But there was another possibility.

"I think you’re the one who changed him."

"Me? What did I do?"

"I think there might be some side effects to your Dominate ability."

Lu Xiang couldn’t help but recall "Old Rat’s" fate, who had been quite influential in The Seventeenth Region. After Chai Ke’s death, he was a strong contender for the next "Underground Emperor." However, after encountering Song Lan and "borrowing" strength from him, Mr. "Old Rat" was set on a path of no return.

The same was happening with Hog, she felt this was perhaps not a coincidence.

"You mentioned before that the way this power is transmitted is related to faith and one’s own spiritual power,"

Lu Xiang proposed her theory seriously, "Just as those who believe in a Consciousness Entity become fervent followers, those who believe in you undergo some subtle changes."

"What kind of changes?"

"They become comedians."