"Of course, it couldn’t be the Police Chief." Chen Gu racked his brains, starting to analyze like the protagonists in scripts. "Those Mutants must have their own channels of information to know about the future police leaders in our city, and these channels must be extremely powerful."
"What are Mutants usually interested in? Things like supermatter, for instance. If we release some information..."
"Right!" Marcus slapped his thigh forcefully. "Mutants often hide among crowds. If they could know in advance who the new Chief of Police is, that means there are Mutants lurking within the city government, and their positions must be quite high."
"Mutants require radioactive materials for sustenance. We could release information about a batch of radioactive materials. If they take the bait, we can trace them back to their source!"
"Great idea, I’ll report it to Director Mei right away!"
The distress on Marcus’s face faded considerably as he rushed to find Director Mei.
As for whether the Mutants apprehended with this plan would be connected to the assassination case... it didn’t matter. As long as they had something temporary to present, it would suffice.
In the office, Silver Eagle eyed Chen Gu with hostility. This new recruit had stolen the spotlight from him twice in one week.
He decided to take this newcomer seriously; at the very least, in the domain of putting on airs, this was an opponent worth his full effort!
Before Chen Gu could feel too pleased, a clear, haughty voice interjected, "Brown-noser!"
The plan quickly got Director Mei’s approval, and he specifically instructed, "Include Chen Gu in the Operations Team for this plan."
Preparing for the operation took time, as did releasing the information. So, for the following week, Chen Gu stayed quietly in school, and the Bureau of Mystic Security did not disturb him much.
It was only on Wednesday that Chen Gu was informed to visit the Bureau of Mystic Security in the evening to get accustomed to the Operations Team’s equipment.
Then, from Friday night on, Chen Gu joined all personnel for the ambush.
Among the personnel supporting Special Task Force Unit Five, the Cleanup Crew was the largest, with 240 people.
Next was the Operations Team, consisting of 180 fully armed men.
Before the operation, the team leader distributed tactical maps to everyone. He explained in detail the covert position of each team and their respective areas to cordon off, demanding, "If a mosquito flies by, you need to catch it and check whether it’s male or female for me."
As the Special Task Force members passed by, Silver Eagle saw Chen Gu standing among the crowd, dressed in a combat uniform that was obviously too large for him. Silver Eagle finally found an opportunity to show off in front of this guy. He smiled and said, "If you’re faced with danger and can’t cope, run in my direction. I’ll take care of you."
With my memory possession, I could take out three of you with one hand! Chen Gu thought.
But outwardly, he put on a professional and appreciative smile.
However, Silver Eagle didn’t derive much pleasure from this successful posturing because he noticed the Operations Team members around him were looking at him with strange expressions.
Silver Eagle walked over, What’s going on? he wondered.
What he didn’t know was that Bao Jie, the bigmouth, had already spread the word that Chen Gu came from "significant origins," and now the entire branch knew.
He had just expressed an intent to curry favor with Chen Gu, so these straightforward team members promptly labeled him a brown-noser.
The "Aloof Prince" and "fawning sycophant" personas were in sharp conflict, almost shattering.
The other Special Task Force members filed past. Selena, the "little demoness," was dressed in a flamboyant outfit; she actually had several small bells hanging from the hem of her skirt!
She didn’t even glance at Chen Gu—but he noticed she had a vacant look in her eyes. Clearly, she had partied too hard and was severely low on energy. Her body was still moving, but her brain had already started to rest.
Impressive! Chen Gu silently praised.
Melincha smiled gently and made an encouraging fist pump. "Little brother, keep it up!"
Chen Gu felt quite awkward. ’Little brother’ is one thing, but it’s hardly appropriate for her to be judging its ’size,’ especially since we’re not that close yet.
The team leader, Marcus, lagged behind. He was the only one to say something actually useful. "Special Task Force members usually earn 30 merit points per mission, while the team leader earns 90. This isn’t fixed; it’s comprehensively evaluated based on performance during the mission."
"If you’re with the Operations Team, your merit points will be calculated according to the standard for operations personnel—roughly 10 points per mission. You need 100 merit points to apply for official employment."
After speaking, he patted Chen Gu on the shoulder and whispered, "I’ve spoken with the Operations Team leader. He’ll give you some extra points. Work hard, and you’ll soon truly become one of us."
Chen Gu instinctively glanced at the Operations Team leader, whose expression was stern, seemingly clueless about Marcus’s implication.
However, the Operations Team members, seeing Bartender’s deferential treatment of Chen Gu, became even more convinced that this kid had a "huge background."
Chen Gu dutifully squatted with all the team members for an entire night, but they found absolutely nothing. As dawn broke and the team packed up, the members cursed, "What kind of crappy plan is this? How can we be sure those Mutants will even get the message? If they don’t come, are we just going to keep waiting ?"
"Which idiot came up with this lousy idea? It’s purely tormenting us!"
"Those energetic freaks in the Special Task Force can stay up all night and still go out to have fun during the day; we can’t. Let’s just go back and catch up on sleep. We can’t do anything else today."
Chen Gu decided to perform a bit of self-hypnosis, repeatedly telling himself, I’m an Operations Team member now, I’m an Operations Team member now. He immediately filled with rage toward "the idiot who came up with the lousy idea" and joined the others in cursing furiously.
The Operations Team and the Cleanup Team rested for a day. In the evening, they had to continue the stakeout. Before they set off this time, Selena, the little demoness, arrived dressed in outlandish red and green clothes—clearly fresh from a party.
This frustrated the Operations Team members even more. Several young men howled, "We want to hit the bars too! We want to chat about life with young women... This damned mission! I curse the guy who came up with this idea—may his dick shrink three centimeters!"
Chen Gu stood up. "I’m going to use the bathroom. You know, as a newcomer, being a bit anxious before an operation leads to frequent urination."
When Chen Gu returned, looking visibly relieved, the team leader urged, "Hurry up, we’re just waiting for you."
Indeed, the night was fruitless again. In the latter half of the night, Chen Gu would hear a yawn from the little demoness over the public communication channel about every 30 seconds.
Chen Gu secretly thought with a touch of malice, Serves you right for partying so much. Now you’re out of energy, huh?
But even the little demoness’s yawns carried a haughty tone.
Director Mei left first in the command vehicle. He said to Marcus over the encrypted channel, "Bartender, tomorrow is the last day. If there’s still no result, we’ll abandon this plan. You need to come up with a more reliable one for me!"
When they gathered on Sunday evening, Chen Gu saw the little demoness again. She was wearing a miniskirt, her fair, slender legs exposed. Her face was covered in heavy silver-blue eyeshadow that somewhat masked her fatigue. She hasn’t slept yet and went out partying again! Chen Gu realized.