Chapter 1050: Chapter 59: Trial

[What kind of test is this?] Amipako was stunned for a full minute before protesting: [Do you know how to do business? Do you even understand the rules? Can’t you just search online?]

[The news online is mixed, there are no absolutely reliable sources of information in this era, are there?]

When Jeanne said this, she heard Xiang Shan sigh lightly in her heart.

Tumor Xiang Shan seemed to think that the internet shouldn’t have become something so… nearly useless for those who don’t know how to use it properly.

[If that’s truly the case, then just release the control!]

Jeanne nodded, and a progress bar appeared in the lower left corner of Amipako’s vision. Meanwhile, numerous internal plugins that supported his entire martial cultivation were being shut down one by one.

This was a reboot progress.

Jeanne said: [Once the reboot is complete, you can move freely. Let’s exchange a safer contact method. As an independent intelligence agent, you should have prepared several secure contact methods, right?]

Amipako said: [My prosthetic body performance isn’t that poor; the reboot shouldn’t take this long. Who are you insulting?]

[I also need some time to withdraw.] Jeanne said: [Let’s just exchange contact methods.]

After exchanging the necessary information, Jeanne and Asgard left together.

Asgard sighed: “Next time we won’t be able to use that curse on that guy.”

“Curses” are precious. Once a target realizes that a curse is some kind of backdoor activation, they will look for a corresponding patch themselves, or expend the effort to write one. However, patches they write themselves are likely to introduce new bugs or cause unknown vulnerabilities; downloading, though unsafe, may have others’ hidden tricks but is more stable—after all, if a never-seen-before bug gets triggered in a life-and-death clash, the opponent won’t give you time to troubleshoot.

And once someone becomes aware of this fatal vulnerability and patches it, he will recommend the patch to all trusted individuals.

In this way, the whole group would not be affected by the curse.

And once this happens multiple times, a curse’s effectiveness on “any opponent” greatly decreases.

This is why some critical “curses,” once used, imply a “fight to the death.” The user of the curse

Amipako initially truly thought Jeanne intended to kill him. To be fair, a curse like this could serve as a last resort for Inner Martial Artists. He genuinely felt there was a high chance he would die. Even if he didn’t die, his body would be infested with numerous powerful Gu worms, turning him into this stranger’s puppet, unable to control his own life and death.

Only after realizing this was a “test” did he feel it was absurd.

It’s like hiring a world-class director, using enough funds to shoot three blockbuster films, and inviting top tier actors, all to plan a “surprise” for you, just to test your courage and integrity, to see if they can sell you a bowl of super spicy mapo tofu, just to check if you can handle it and if you’d bail without paying.

—Is it worth it?

Of course, he didn’t know that this was originally Xiang Shan’s idea.

This curse comes from that old dog Hartman. This curse couldn’t be used against Hartman or his lackeys; instead, it could only become an armament for those lackeys. In this way, letting more people know about it is a small yet significant blow to Hartman.

However, it can’t be directly published online. Jeanne has been too cautious over the years; she hasn’t integrated into any hero circles, and posting in public communities, firstly, tends to get buried under massive amounts of junk information, secondly, few would believe it, and thirdly, it could easily attract unwanted attention.

Besides, for this level of curse, who knows how many Hartman holds in his hands. He could just replace it with another one for the Rangers.

Asgard said: “This approach is indeed good, and you certainly have the guts… Should have done this sooner, to frustrate that old dog. Speaking of which, what other news do you have?”

“About the connection between the Chaldean drug merchants and the Six Dragons Sect.” Jeanne said: “Initially, I stumbled onto clues about Li Zheyuan by following the Six Dragons Sect’s dealings in the pharmaceutical market. Although Li Zheyuan was extremely cautious, he didn’t realize that top tier Inner Martial Artists can complete a personality profile just through conversation habits…”

Tumor Xiang Shan floated in front of him: [You can’t say that. Personality profiling first requires being sufficiently familiar with someone. Someone who is familiar with this guy and has high enough inner strength, probably wouldn’t be buying medicine from those small vendors, right? Such a level of caution is about enough.]

Next, the two went to find the organizers of the Grassland Heroes’ Arena, attempting to buy the so-called “subscription data”—of course, this was just the surface purpose. Their real objective was to rely on Xiang Shan’s profiling skills to see if among the operational staff there was a master hiding big secrets—or more precisely, members of the Six Dragons Sect.

Despite Yawgmoth continually working to eliminate culture, the heroes, scientific knights, defense armed cadres, and members of the Six Dragons Sect still developed subtle “biases” due to their identities and daily behaviors.

These biases are actually quite subtle, so much so that even Jeanne and Asgard, being high-level rangers, couldn’t detect them. However, Tumor Xiang Shan was luckily endowed with the observational skills at this level.

At first, Asgard was reluctant to believe this. By this reasoning, it would be impossible for the Six Dragons Sect to take root on the Moon. After all, King Aqini is the second strongest in human inner strength.

Tumor Xiang Shan sneered at Asgard’s evaluation: [Heh, that stubborn nerd… He definitely has tendencies towards autism, no desire to communicate with others, naturally wouldn’t seek to develop relevant abilities. Even if the inner strength’s development of the brain brought a natural rise in related abilities, he wouldn’t know how to use it. His psychological profiling skill probably just stays at the level of ‘identifying who a cybernetically enhanced person is’. Moreover, profiling can only detect changes in others…]

Asgard asked what he meant.

And Xiang Shan’s answer sent chills down the spines of the two rangers.

Xiang Shan said, [What if the first time he saw those Six Dragons Sect members, they were already part of the Six Dragons Sect?]

If it were someone with stronger empathy, perhaps they could easily discern the feels of “deception” and “shadows”. However, it is difficult to distinguish the former from a “benevolent lie” or “empty boasting of achievements”, while the latter could be mistaken for someone simply “feeling down today”.

Being able to recognize members of the Six Dragons Sect through cultural tendencies, as Xiang Shan does, is exceedingly rare—even though he is currently just a tumor.

The rarity of this ability is also an advantage for Jeanne and her team. As long as Jeanne wanders around the areas where the “Six Dragons Sect might appear”, without needing more information, she could directly pluck sect members out from the crowd.

Of course, in the Old Era, such a method could not even be considered “evidence”. And in virtual works, there probably isn’t a detective who catches criminals through psychological profiling.

To Jeanne’s disappointment, they didn’t find anyone resembling sect members among the organizers they met.