Chapter 138
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Chapter 138: Unreasonable Contact Person
At that moment, Shi Jin came to understand certain truths.
She abandoned the notion of a complete cure for her mother, yet she remained determined to sustain her mother’s life.
This was Shi Jin’s final boundary.
Driven by this, she began to entertain thoughts she shouldn’t have.
Two blocks from Shi Jin’s home stood a casino.
Though nights in Hope City were quiet, with few venturing out, this was merely a result of energy shortages; there was no official curfew.
The casino’s lights often burned through the night, accompanied by raucous laughter and eerie wails that echoed across the street.
By day, the casino transformed into a lifeless void, where people returned to their routines—some to work, others to sleep…
Shi Jin’s attention turned to this place.
After a week of careful observation, she deciphered the casino’s rhythms.
As her funds dwindled, she resolved to act.
The theft unfolded more smoothly than she had imagined. The casino, backed by gangs, exuded an air of invincibility, but its security was a façade.
Armed with her lockpicking tools and a small hammer, Shi Jin made her move during the quiet hours of the morning, when sleep held the city in its grip.
The result was astonishing.
In a single stroke, she walked away with two hundred thousand information coins.
This was the casino’s unaccounted revenue, not yet tallied or reported.
As Shi Jin had anticipated, the casino, an illicit operation, chose not to report the theft to the Public Security Team. Instead, security tightened in the following days.
Many of the burly guards now bore fresh scars on their faces.
Yet, despite the money, Shi Jin’s mother could no longer hold on.
With a calm demeanor, Shi Jin arranged her mother’s funeral and neatly stashed the remaining stolen funds beneath her bed.
She spent the entire night sitting in silence, staring at the stacks of cash and the lockpicking tools in her hands.
Then, Master Hand entered her life.
Shi Jin’s thefts were less about the money and more about unsettling those she deemed unworthy.
Whenever she sensed someone’s hidden misdeeds, she began to plot.
After each successful heist, she left behind a hand-drawn symbol on the wall.
The brush she used was crafted from rolled-up information coins, burned after each theft.
Shi Jin harbored an almost obsessive fixation on information coins.
Though she never spent the stolen money, she meticulously arranged the coins beneath her bed.
Other valuables, those not information coins, she carelessly discarded.
Her downfall came when she ventured into the inner city, intending to convert all her gains into information coins to add to her hidden stash.
The root of this decision lay in the growing clutter of “junk” in her home…
The birth and capture of Master Hand were just that: essentially, an ordinary young maintenance worker wanted to unsettle some locals.
Using Zhuang Mian’s question as a prompt, Shi Jin quickly reviewed her Dreamy Life over the past year in her mind.
“Ha~”
She suddenly laughed out loud,
“Your question is really strange. Do we need a reason to do bad things?”
“Don’t we?”
Zhuang Mian raised an eyebrow. Shi Jin had always cooperated, but now she seemed to suddenly develop a rebellious streak.
“If I had to say, it’s just really frustrating.”
Shi Jin lowered her gaze, which seemed to hold boundless anger,
“I’m really frustrated with this stupid city.”
Zhuang Mian silently echoed, “Me too,” in her heart, but her expression remained unchanged.
“That’s all I have to say. As for that so-called ‘follower,’ I truly know nothing about it. Please just give me a straightforward answer.”
Zhuang Mian closed the file in her hands, not responding to Shi Jin’s request.
She gestured for her team members to take Shi Jin to a Single Room, then walked out of the Interrogation Room, gently moving her stiff neck.
“Deliver this statement to Mr. Luke, and let him know that it’s getting late; we can discuss things tomorrow.”
Zhuang Mian watched Shi Jin’s figure disappear at the end of the hallway, then turned toward her lounge in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Along the way, her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts.
In reality, her subordinates had already verified Shi Jin’s experiences over the past year through various inquiries.
No matter what the other party said, she wouldn’t care; asking that question felt like a pity.
Zhuang Mian had been conducting internal investigations for a while.
The actions of certain individuals even led her to suspect whether this person was a spy sent by the extraordinary beasts.
Some portions of the investigation encountered interference, which also made Zhuang Mian feel quite disgusted.
Whenever any organization expands, internal problems are sure to arise.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs is like this, the military is like this, and so is Hope City.
Would the “followers” be like this too?
Zhuang Mian didn’t know.
After organizing her work files in the office and ensuring she hadn’t missed anything, Zhuang Mian returned to her room in the Ministry of Internal Affairs building, only to find two eerie Green Lights in the darkness.
A small kitten with mixed-colored fur sat elegantly on Zhuang Mian’s desk.
It looked very well-behaved, and there were no claw marks or cat fur left on the neatly made bed.
Seeing all of this, Zhuang Mian didn’t feel any sense of relaxation.
Her past experience of being attacked kept her cautious most of the time.
Although the silent gap in the window, almost the width of the kitten, suggested how it had entered, she clearly remembered sealing the room completely before leaving during the day, including the windows.
If this were just a coincidence, she could let it go.
Zhuang Mian silently repeated in her mind.
Her work was busy; although she loved Furry Things, she truly had no time to care for a cat.
Yet this cat was really well-behaved.
Just at the moment Zhuang Mian closed the door behind her, a strange yet somewhat cute female voice reached her ears.
“Hello, Captain Zhuang Mian, or to put it another way, hello, Lady Butterfly of the ‘followers.’”
In an instant, Zhuang Mian felt a chill run down her spine.
She slowly turned to the left, her right hand instinctively reaching for her holster.
“Don’t be so nervous! Miss Fulan means no harm~”
The cat spoke!
Zhuang Mian was stunned; the cat in front of her seemed overly intelligent.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Miss Fulan of the ‘followers’ organization.”
Well, it seemed the “followers” were indeed not what she had imagined.
Zhuang Mian felt her thoughts numb.
Members of the Clean-up Team, orphans from the lower city, all-around researchers, direct superpowered individuals, and… a cat.
This world was getting more and more magical.
