Enforcer Manual
Chapter 936 - 871: Hall of Fame Player_2

Chapter 936: Chapter 871: Hall of Fame Player_2

It had affected even the genetic level.

Lu Xiang didn’t know exactly what genes Yeying had extracted, but his sleep quality was far better than Song Lan’s.

In the "sleeping" competition held by Song Lan, he narrowly lost to Yeying and regretfully became the runner-up. In that competition, Yeying maintained a lifestyle of eating upon waking up and sleeping after eating for 7 days.

"It’s time to get up."

Lu Xiang gently placed her palm on Song Lan’s forehead, feeling the touch between their foreheads, Song Lan’s eyes cracked open slightly.

He almost blurted out, "Five more minutes."

This was Song Lan’s classic excuse for lying in bed. Lu Xiang never understood what was so different about those five minutes, but Song Lan had seriously proposed a theory of "Time Relativity," stressing that the five minutes for snoozing could not be compared with a normal five minutes. For those who had to get up early, it brought a happiness equivalent to an hour.

Lu Xiang had never heard of such a theory elsewhere; she just suspected that Song Lan was using his powers every time he snoozed, actually secretly sleeping for another hour.

Fortunately, Song Lan was fairly punctual.

After patiently waiting for five minutes, he finally sat up from the bed, bleary-eyed.

"Here, take a look, who is this?"

Lu Xiang took out a photo sent by Mentor Catherine.

Whenever Song Lan got up, it was the best time to question him, as during this period, this Dumb Bird’s thinking would be relatively confused, making it easy for him to blurt out his inner thoughts.

Her findings about his fondness for nanosuits and fox role-play had been "interrogated" under such conditions.

"...A fellow villager?"

As expected, even disguised like this, Song Lan recognized Vadim instantly.

"Spill it, what devilry are you up to? The agency’s hotline has been blowing up with calls from citizens today."

"Me? I did nothing."

In the past few hours, the only thing Song Lan had done was dream.

A peculiar dream.

He dreamed that an unprecedented grand celebration was held in the Fourth District, where everyone enthusiastically joined in the cricket-fighting festival. Whether you were a public servant, a common man, a thug, or a beggar, you could temporarily put aside the grievances that came with your social status and immerse yourself in the festival.

Song Lan, too, was caught up in the festivity and eagerly found a partner to fight alongside—Black Flash of Invincible Universe, a robust and majestic mutated cricket.

Then he woke up.

At the end of the dream, Lu Xiang suddenly appeared and confiscated his partner.

"Really?"

"Of course."

The disappearance of Black Flash left Song Lan wistful; he vaguely remembered making a pact with the cricket.

To make it to the finals and aim for the champion title.

As the sleepiness faded, and his thoughts gradually cleared, Song Lan decided to persuade Lu Xiang of his innocence through meticulous logic, "If I had really caused an anomaly, you would have come looking for me."

"Hm."

"And then I wouldn’t have been able to sleep in, would I?"

Song Lan asserted confidently, "Vadim may be a fellow villager, but is he more important than sleeping in?"

His logic was sound and persuasive.

For a moment, Lu Xiang found herself unable to refute his argument.

"So what is this all about?"

"Maybe... he suddenly awakened Spiritual Energy." Song Lan said offhandedly, "Like an ability to attract attention in public places or something."

"Alright, no need to go on."

It was clear that Lu Xiang didn’t believe him; ever since this Dumb Bird had claimed that the "old friend" from the food street was Princess Lieyang’s father, his credibility in deductive reasoning had dropped by six percentage points.

If this trend continued, it wouldn’t be long before Song Lan would be stripped of his title in the detective club.

While Lu Xiang was showing Song Lan their fellow villager’s "new skin," another message came through.

The sender was Catherine.

Although today’s Fourth District had seen a substantial increase in the wild Vadims, the agents dispatched by the agency came back empty-handed. It seemed that Vadim himself had realized his dire situation. Despite the continuous stream of citizens who encountered him, by the time the agents arrived on the scene, he had already vanished without a trace.

Just now, they made an unexpected discovery at the last place Vadim was seen.

It was a region that had never been marked by the Skynet terminal before; if not for Vadim leading the way, the agency would have probably never found this secret location.

When the agency’s agents arrived there, Vadim, unsurprisingly, had left again.

However, the agent had captured some strange things in that place which resembled ruins.

Statues were arrayed within it, seemingly once worshiped by someone here.

"Bugs?"

Lu Xiang enlarged the photo. As the leader of the Bug Swarm, she had recently become increasingly sensitive to insect-like creatures.

The shapes of these insects bore some resemblance to Horn Bugs. Their forms varied, but each exuded an imposing presence.

Black sparkle!

Song Lan’s pupils shrank as he recognized a familiar figure among those statues!

Why would someone erect a statue for a comrade he had fought side by side with?

"You recognize these statues?"

Lu Xiang noticed the change in Song Lan.

This result wasn’t that surprising, after all. The concept of the Bug Swarm had been Song Lan’s creation from the start, and he had even directed Xinyue to hatch many creatures that had never been recorded in the biological handbook.

"This one, the largest of them all."

Song Lan pointed to the statue displayed in the second position in the enlarged photo, "This is my friend!"

...

Lu Xiang hesitated for a brief moment.

Finally, "Dumb Bird’s" circle of friends was no longer limited to humans and mutated creatures; unbeknownst to her, he had ventured into the realm of insects.

But hadn’t Dumb Bird claimed that flying was a bug’s nemesis?

Why then did he become friends with insects?

Despite the lingering doubts in her mind, Lu Xiang instructed Teacher Catherine to seal off the scene.

............

Meanwhile, in a certain part of District Four.

"Young man, well done."

Walking along a deserted path, Vadim received praise from "Nothingness." He had rarely ever received such "positive feedback" from the company while working for it; as far as the company was concerned, solving problems for them was his duty—successful completion was expected, and failure led to scolding and warnings.

In terms of personality, Vadim thought "Nothingness" was much better than the company.

The deity sounded excited, as though even "Nothingness" had not expected that remnants of the old era had been preserved intact until now.

But due to the pursuit of the Bureau of Investigation, Vadim had no time to examine each statue closely.

His ability came with significant side effects; even without activating it, he would become a focal point for those around him, and no matter how he disguised himself, passersby could identify him at a glance, so he had spent the whole morning outwitting the Bureau’s agents.

Having shaken off his pursuers, Vadim finally had time to ask, "Those statues just now..."

"Invincible Universe, the Black Sparkle."

"Ah?"

"That’s its title, a Hall of Fame contestant in the Cricket Fighting Championship, the runner-up of the first tournament, you could say it’s your senior. What you saw just now were the top eight contestants of the first tournament."

...

Vadim fell silent.

Well, insects had now become his seniors, but he saw the subtlety in "Nothingness’s" hint and cooperatively inquired, "And the champion of that first tournament was...?"

"Hmm? How do you know my partner "Golden Lion" and I won the championship of the first Cricket Fighting Championship?"

This was the third time "Nothingness" had emphasized its championship status, but it was the first time Vadim had heard the name of its partner.

But...

Golden Lion?

Invincible Universe, the Black Sparkle?

These titles echoed in Vadim’s mind.

Suddenly, he was less keen on participating in the Cricket Fighting Championship.

"We went there to pay homage to my ’seniors’?"

"That was one of the purposes. The spirit of the ’Golden Lion’ will bless you."

"Nothingness" said, "But more importantly, those following you will find that place. If my old friend really is in this city, then after seeing those statues, he will undoubtedly be eager to join the 37th Cricket Fighting Championship!"