Translator: Deyonna
At this moment, everyone’s gaze was fixed on the military investigator’s identity tag, held up by the little octopus.
Yuan Ye furrowed his brows slightly, looking pensive.
The sixth team’s team leader Liang Kun remained relatively calm, but He Li, who had been closely observing Yuan Ye, suddenly changed his expression drastically.
He stared intently at the identity tag held up high by the little octopus, and the smile that had been on his face earlier had disappeared, for some unknown reason.
Just as the little octopus was about to run up to the young man, He Li suddenly took a step forward.
“Mr. Yuan Ye, is this your pet?”
His movements were too abrupt and quick, nearly stepping on the little octopus holding up the identity tag.
To be more accurate, it wasn’t that he nearly stepped on it, but rather that Ye Yunfan suddenly sensed a shadow overhead, instinctively stopped, and quickly sidestepped, narrowly avoiding the danger.
Swoosh—
Ye Yunfan heard the familiar sound of a knife being drawn. But before that, he had first heard the sound of a heavy fist slamming into someone’s body.
Bang!
He Li was instantly knocked to the ground by a punch from Hu Changchuan.
“Cough!”
The man coughed up a few specks of blood red and didn’t get up off the ground for a long time. Hu Changchuan’s tone suddenly became very tough, completely different from the polite and amiable old good guy just moments ago.
“He Li! What was that look in your eyes?!”
Hu Changchuan glanced out of the corner of his eye at the long knife that had been drawn halfway out of its sheath. His back was almost drenched in cold sweat, but outwardly he still exuded an imposing attitude.
“You almost stepped on our chi… Mr. Yuan Ye’s ‘little jellyfish’?!”
Jon was confused about what was happening, his expression blank. There was still a faint reddish handprint from where Hu Changchuan had forcefully covered his face earlier, making him appear rather foolish.
Chen Xinyue’s throat moved slightly as she silently took half a step back, her gaze carefully and complicatedly resting on the long knife.
A strong intuition told her that if Hu Changchuan hadn’t intervened earlier, that knife would have drawn blood.
Yuan Ye didn’t look at the injured He Li, but rather quietly stared at the standing pink “little jellyfish”. It was still tightly clutching the identity tag in its tentacles, frozen in place, as if it was terrified.
But at this moment, Ye Yunfan wasn’t terrified, but rather shocked and puzzled.
The crisis just now had suddenly made his mind clear.
At this moment, Ye Yunfan was not only shocked by his own impulsiveness but also puzzled as to why he had acted so recklessly based on a simple guess.
Obviously, when he first met Yuan Ye, he would rather give up the delicious meal he had just got and hide, choosing a safer path with lower returns and lower risks.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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But after this brief moment of recollection, Ye Yunfan unexpectedly discovered that even his most deeply etched memories were starting to become vague.
He seemed to… not quite remember the faces of the younger brothers and sisters back home anymore.
This discovery alarmed and frightened Ye Yunfan.
But at that moment, a familiar hand appeared in his field of vision. The black leather glove clung tightly, outlining the long, beautiful fingers.
The little octopus looked up, meeting those two familiar heterochromatic eyes.
—It was Yuan Ye reaching out his hand to him.
“……”
The little octopus was silent for a moment, then slowly extended his tentacles to hook onto the young man’s fingertips, and climbed up. This time, it was not on the cold, hard metal wrist guard or shoulder guard; instead, he nestled in the young man’s soft palm.
“You like this?”
Ye Yunfan hesitated for a moment. His mind was clearer than it had ever been before, and he keenly noticed the scorching gazes of everyone on him.
Especially He Li.
So, in the end, the little octopus nodded affirmatively to Yuan Ye’s question. But immediately afterward, Ye Yunfan extended his tentacle and put together the identity tag on the wrist guard made of patched metal armor pieces, as if intending to embed the tag into it.
Yuan Ye watched its movements, turned silent for a few seconds, and then suddenly took the cold metal tag from the little tentacle and explained seriously.
“They’re different, not suitable.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Yuan Ye’s gaze suddenly sharpened.
Different.
He unconsciously began to recall the pile of identity tags he had seen earlier, as if he had suddenly hit upon some overlooked key point.
On the ground, He Li did not notice this; he only heard what Yuan Ye said and believed that the ‘little jellyfish’ simply liked the metal tag. Consequently, he immediately realized that his actions had been pointless.
Pointless and foolish.
It seems like he just had voluntarily confessed.
He Li’s face immediately paled a bit, but he still forced himself to get up. “I’m really… really sorry. I wasn’t paying attention for a moment.”
The man tugged at his bleeding lips, forcing out an ugly smile.
“But your pet is really special. It actually liked collecting metal tags.”
“……”
Yuan Ye fiddled with the identity tag in his hand, not paying attention to him. Instead, he glanced sideways, past the disheveled He Li, and looked towards the team leader Liang Kun behind him.
“However, I suddenly recalled that the tags you fished out earlier seem a bit different from this one.”
At these words, Chen Xinyue looked over in inquiry. Team leader Liang Kun suddenly smiled and waved his hand, gesturing for He Li to step aside.
“May I ask, Mr. Yuan Ye, where do you feel the difference?”
“Identification ID.”
Yuan Ye casually tossed the tag to Chen Xinyue.
“A few of the identification IDs are too old. They should have been discharged from military service years ago. And there also seem to be a few disability certification marks in there?”
This was the detail that Ye Yunfan had noticed after obtaining Chen Xinyue’s identity tag. However, he didn’t know what the difference between them meant, so now he could only watch and see what Yuan Ye would do.
“……”
Liang Kun did not immediately respond. Instead, he lightly glanced at He Li, who was gritting his teeth, enduring the pain without saying a word. He also hadn’t expected that the soldier who reported after collecting the tags would coincidentally meet Yuan Ye.
Liang Kun’s expression remained composed as he slowly spoke.
“The mission was urgent, so I thought the more people, the better. That’s why I brought some experienced veterans. Although they have already retired or don’t have their previous peak strength, in this kind of situation, I think we can make exceptions.”
This explanation is very logical.
At this moment, Chen Xinyue suddenly realized. So the majority of the deceased military investigators were actually retired veterans or disabled soldiers?
“But this completely goes against the regulations!”
Her voice suddenly rose.
Although those who sacrifice themselves on official missions can still receive the same compensation, a mission of this level would absolutely not conscript such soldiers, especially when manpower is sufficient.
In other words, Liang Kun very likely sent those soldiers intentionally to their deaths to collect the high death gratuity!
Death gratuity fraud is actually quite common in the investigation unit, and there are even many high-ranking officials who deliberately suppress and withhold the death gratuity.
This kind of thing is usually tacitly understood by everyone. The higher-ups take the big share, while the lower ranks will drink the watery soup.
It’s just that the high-difficulty emergency rescue mission, like the king creature attack, is not common, so Chen Xinyue didn’t immediately think of it.
Her gaze suddenly turned sharp as she pressed on.
“How many were part of that team?!”
“The accurate casualty report will probably be out tomorrow. At that time, Captain Chen can take a close look.”
Liang Kun’s tone remained unhurried. Although his body was gravely injured and weak, his vigor did not diminish.
“You can stop looking at me like that. Although this sum of money is not small, it’s a dead person’s money. Laozi won’t take a single penny of it. Captain Chen, if you don’t believe me, you can supervise it.”
During the back-and-forth between the two, the little octopus lay in Yuan Ye’s palm, carefully pondering the ins and outs of the entire situation.
Considering the clues gathered so far and He Li’s attempts to defend Bard just now, the two individuals in front of them definitely know about Bard’s deeds, because from the beginning until now, they have been covering for Bard.
However, the power that Liang Kun holds does not seem to be enough to be able to mobilize a gifted person.
No, it’s mobilizing a player.
So Liang Kun doesn’t seem like the manipulator behind the scenes, but what if he works with the players, or even just a pawn in the hands of a certain player?
Yuan Ye suddenly thought of this possibility.
After all, he himself is a player, and he can’t say for sure if there may be other players in this world.
However, speculation is just speculation. Currently, Liang Kun’s only confirmed deeds are illegally conscripting some unqualified retired or disabled soldiers in order to fraudulently claim death gratuities.
But this alone doesn’t appear to be sufficient grounds to charge him with the serious crime of facilitating the invasion of the king creature…
[So dizzy, so dizzy]
[Dizzy, dizzy. Don’t understand, don’t understand.]
Ye Yunfan’s rapidly churning train of thoughts in his mind has left the little tentacles feeling dizzy.
They listlessly grumbled and groaned in complaint, but Ye Yunfan ignored them.
He continues his train of thought: If the king creature’s attack on the supply station was induced, what could a player gain from that?
It doesn’t seem like there would be much benefit.
Putting himself in the player’s shoes, even though he’s currently not human, there’s really no benefit for him to have monsters slaughter humans.
So why does the player Zhang Nan, and the people behind him, specifically want to obtain the king creature’s dead body?
To eat it?
However, when Zhang Nan mentioned that if they couldn’t obtain the king creature’s corpse, everyone in the supply station would have to die. It’s evident that they are trying to snatch away the king creature’s corpse to conceal something.
To conceal the secret hidden inside the corpse.
Is it the unusual high intelligence of this king creature, or its unusual early hatching?
Ye Yunfan’s train of thought has reached a dead end.
At that moment, Hu Changchuan stood silently observing from the side, only sighing quietly. But before he could even finish his sigh, he was suddenly called out—
“Hu Changchuan.”
Yuan Ye suddenly looked over at him.
“What do you think?”
At the same moment, Liang Kun also looked over with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile.
“Yes, Officer Hu, I’d like to hear your thoughts as well. After all, we’ve been friends for three years, so you should know me pretty well.”
I’ll leave the thinking to the experts, because this poor reader is lost and can only patiently wait for the truth to be revealed 😵💫
+1😵💫😵😂
Also scratching my head as to what the point is…
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️
As confused as the octopus’ little tentacles 😵💫🐙
Thank you for the chapter! ❤
Me and the tentacles rn: 😵