CHAPTER 59: CHAPTER 59 SEARCH_1

"My name is Ge Wenjun. Just call me Captain Ge."

The middle-aged man coughed and asked Lu Yuan, "So, you came here early in the morning. Is there something you need?"

"Yes."

Lu Yuan nodded. "I wanted to ask Captain Ge about something."

"Well, I happen to have something to discuss with you too."

Ge Wenjun nodded. "Come with me. Let’s talk in my office."

Lu Yuan followed Ge Wenjun to the second floor, where they settled into an office near the stairwell.

Ge Wenjun politely gestured for Lu Yuan to sit and poured him a glass of water.

"So, what did you want to ask me, coming here so early in the morning?"

Lu Yuan put down the disposable paper cup in his hand and said earnestly, "I want... to see the case file for last month’s kidnapping."

"PFFT—" Ge Wenjun, who was holding a thermos, sputtered, spraying out the water he’d just sipped. He looked at Lu Yuan, a mix of amusement and exasperation on his face.

"Kid, have you been reading too many novels or watching too much TV? Case files aren’t something just anyone can look at. However, since you were involved, I can tell you some of the less critical details."

"Oh." Lu Yuan scratched his head, feigning embarrassment.

In reality, this was exactly the response he wanted. If he had directly asked to understand the situation, knowing Ge Wenjun’s typical evasiveness, he would have undoubtedly hemmed and hawed. He wouldn’t have been as forthcoming as he was now.

"What do you want to know?"

"Those gang members who did the kidnapping, what’s their background?"

Ge Wenjun gently placed his thermos on the table, thought for a moment, and said, "They’re just a bunch of thugs. Their leader... that Hei fellow you pinned against the car, breaking seven or eight of his ribs. He’s practiced Martial Arts, fought in Black Fist matches for a few years. This crew used to operate in the western district, running protection rackets for businesses, that sort of thing. Later, I don’t know what got into them, but they got bold enough to start kidnapping..."

"Is there any chance of them getting out?" Lu Yuan asked.

Ge Wenjun glanced at him and chuckled. "Afraid they’ll retaliate? Don’t worry. They won’t get the chance in this lifetime."

"The death penalty?!" Lu Yuan blinked. "Or life imprisonment?"

But Ge Wenjun didn’t speak, merely shaking his head. Clearly, that was something he couldn’t tell him.

Lu Yuan, however, felt a thrill. A simple kidnapping charge wouldn’t result in such a severe penalty. Just as he’d suspected, this gang had to be connected to the rat men who attacked him.

"Besides the girl I saved last time, did they kidnap anyone else?" Lu Yuan asked again.

Ge Wenjun nodded. "They did. Quite a few, in fact."

"Were they all rescued?"

Instead of answering, Ge Wenjun lifted his teacup for a sip, steering the conversation in another direction.

"I was about to bring this up with you. The family of the girl you saved last time is very grateful. I gave them your contact information. That’s alright, isn’t it?"

Lu Yuan paused, then shook his head. "No problem."

"That family’s quite well-off... But with your strong sense of justice, I doubt you care about that sort of thing. By the way, about that commendation banner, do you want it? I can have it made in the next couple of days. Even if you don’t want to hang it, you can keep it as a memento."

"Captain Ge." Lu Yuan, seeing that Ge Wenjun was purposefully diverting the topic, said with a touch of helplessness, "Alright, just one last question."

"Go ahead." Ge Wenjun looked at him with a smile.

Lu Yuan thought for a moment, then asked seriously, "I want to know, which Cult do Hei and his gang belong to?"

「10:28 AM, Burnt Rock City Library.」

A young man strode in.

He wore a black and white tracksuit. He was tall, with slightly long hair styled with a bit of a fringe, which accentuated his sharp, handsome features. His build resembled an athlete’s, though his exceptionally pale skin softened this impression.

Upon entering the library, Lu Yuan headed straight for the intelligent book search station in the main hall.

He opened the book retrieval page on the search station’s screen, but Lu Yuan didn’t know where to begin. After pondering for a long moment, he eventually typed ’Brahma’ onto the screen.

"Relevant search results: 1,634,676. Displaying below..."

Expressionless, Lu Yuan then tried adding ’Cult’ after ’Brahma’.

The screen flickered.

"Relevant search results: 162,117. Displaying below..."

Lu Yuan pulled out his phone and repeated the search. Over one hundred million related results...

"DAMN!" Lu Yuan couldn’t hold back a curse. In his mind, he cursed Ge Wenjun dozens of times over.

And to think he’d been respectfully calling him "Captain Ge" all morning! Ge Wenjun was still the same old Ge Wenjun, always speaking in half-truths. It seemed like he’d given him some information, but what was the difference between this and telling him nothing at all?

"If I hang around Ge Wenjun long enough, will I unlock the [Riddler] profession?" Lu Yuan complained internally.

He had asked Ge Wenjun which Cult those gang members connected to the rat men had joined. Ge Wenjun had told him, "It seems to be called the Brahmic something-something Cult..."

What ’Brahmic something Cult’ was it exactly? How many ’somethings’ were there between ’Brahma’ and ’Cult’? With such a vague clue, how was this different from searching for a needle in a haystack?

"No choice. Even if it’s like searching for a needle in a haystack, I have to find it..." The origin of the rat men was crucial for Lu Yuan to gain a deeper understanding of the current world. It wasn’t just simple curiosity for him.

What was that saying again? Ah, yes—the gears of fate begin to turn from this moment...

Extraordinary. Possessing a ’Profession Panel,’ Lu Yuan had countless speculations about those two words.

Taking a shallow breath, Lu Yuan pondered, then added ’Ancient,’ ’Rat,’ ’Evil Cult,’ ’Evil God,’ ’Ancient God,’ ’Rat God,’ and any other potentially relevant keywords he could think of after ’Brahma’ and ’Cult’.

But this time, the search yielded ’0’ results.

Lu Yuan had no choice but to carefully reconsider and start removing the less important or less relevant keywords.

Time slipped by, bit by bit, without him noticing.

"Could you please hurry up?" After an unknown amount of time, Lu Yuan heard someone softly urging him.

Lu Yuan’s gaze left the search screen. Turning, he saw a slim, fair-skinned girl wearing glasses.

"I’m a librarian," the girl said softly to Lu Yuan. "You’ve been using this machine for a very long time, and there are people waiting. Could you please try to hurry up a bit?"

Lu Yuan glanced back and saw three or four people indeed queuing behind him, varying degrees of impatience on their faces.

Lu Yuan didn’t move. He just glanced to the side and said calmly, "Why don’t they use the machines over there?"

"Those machines are undergoing a system upgrade today, and it’ll last until the afternoon," the girl explained. "Right now, yours is the only one on this entire floor that’s working."

Lu Yuan thought for a moment. "Then give me another five minutes."

The keywords on his screen were now down to five, yielding just over 10,000 results. He’d already gone through most of them; five minutes should be enough to scan the remaining few thousand entries.

"Alright, then I’ll ask them to wait a little longer." The girl nodded, then walked back to soothe and explain to each person in line in a low voice.

Lu Yuan didn’t waste any time. In just four and a half minutes, he finished scanning the remaining search entries.

He promptly vacated the search station and sat down in a nearby armchair.

Lu Yuan closed his eyes. Relying on his exceptional memory, he began to mentally review the list of book titles he had rapidly committed to memory.

Even with his near-photographic memory, this mental task was still taxing. He could clearly feel some of the details rapidly fading under the intense mental effort.

"Next time I get attribute points, I should prioritize Intelligence," Lu Yuan told himself.

He was gradually appreciating the benefits of increased Intelligence. Besides helping with everyday situations like this, it also aided his Martial Arts practice: greater fighting spirit, more vitality, enhanced learning ability, a higher chance of triggering the [Flash of Insight] passive skill...

"If my Intelligence were 12, or even 13 points..." Lu Yuan mused, "then the Crane Cry Punch I used against the rat man yesterday might have successfully unlocked as a skill on the ’Profession Panel’."