Chapter 465: Double-edged Sword
“Um… Is there a problem with the One Hundred Ways to Destroy Dragon City?” Meng Chao tested the waters by asking.
Shen Yupeng replied seriously, “No, absolutely not. The booklet is written really well. It has great foresight and has enlightened us. It gave a good lesson to the secret police, nine great cultivation families, mega corporations, and other related departments.
“Plenty of seniors in the superhuman circle also believe that this booklet went straight to the point and highlighted the hidden problems in Dragon City. Supernatural abilities are a double-edged sword our civilization has never seen before. It can push our civilization to a brand new height, but it can also plunge our civilization to an abyss of destruction. Where it will lead us will depend on how we use it.
“So, after the ambush on Noble Descent Hotel, the secret police, related departments, the mega corporations, and nine great cultivation families started reflecting and reorganizing themselves at a grand scale.
“It was especially so during the months you went to train in the wild. Everyone made bold decisions and practically hurt themselves to get rid of the evil practices that had formed over the years. They also started learning and developing the spirit of serving the citizens.
“Specifically, many departments and industries organized strict examinations over the distribution of cultivation resources and how they have been used over the past ten years or even longer. Even if it’s just one high-calorie nutritional fluid, one gene medicine, or one karat’s worth of crystal, they wanted to know where it went so that they can ensure that it’s used for official business.
“At the same time, all the small banks and secret accounts that have existed long ago were exposed so that we could reduce a lot of illogical expenses. We also reduced quite a number of excessive benefits we give to superhumans. The money and cultivation resources that we freed were then given to the people to upgrade the defense systems of the old residential areas and modify the normal schools in those areas so that we can support the cultivation of poor children.
“At the same time, we also noticed that many superhumans in the past paid too much attention to their own cultivation, so it was inevitable that they put themselves on a pedestal and could not connect with the people. It’s no wonder then why the distance between them and the normal people kept widening. It even caused some of the citizens to have certain thoughts about us.
“When it came to this, the ace investigator of the abnormal beast research department, Lu Siya, set up an example for us. Under your influence, she got rid of her arrogance and delusions of grandeur, then took the initiative to merge with the people. She did voluntary work and promoted the thought that superhumans should serve the normal people. It received good comments from everyone.
“So, with great seriousness, we learned from Lu Siya and wrote a report on our thoughts and did voluntary work for the public. I have to say, doing voluntary work is much more relaxing than capturing lost people!”
The more Meng Chao listened, the stranger he found it.
He felt that Shen Yupeng sounded a little… out of character.
Meng Chao could only brace himself and sau, “Big Brother Peng, from what I heard, the superhumans in Dragon City have been doing a good job over this period of time and are getting closer to the normal people. Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Of course it’s a good thing. I didn’t say it’s a bad thing. I’m just praising the writer of the One Hundred Ways to Destroy Dragon City for having great foresight and Lu Siya for being the model cultivator!”
Shen Yupeng stretched out three fingers and pushed them together. That gesture generally meant “insignificant. “It’s just that we ran into a small problem. It’s not big, but the secret police lost one-third of its forces over the past few months.”
“Wh-What do you mean?” Meng Chao was dumbfounded. “One-third of the secret police left? Why?!”
“Because these people’s determination wasn’t strong enough, I guess,” Shen Yupeng said expressionlessly. “Of course, objectively speaking, it’s not easy being a secret police officer and adjudicator.
“What are good jobs for superhumans? Honestly, it’s simple. There are two criteria for it. First, they can earn cultivation resources. Second, they have room to grow stronger. If I were to add one more, it would be that they want their names to be known and for people to call them heroes, right?
“Take the hunters, pathfinders, and explorers as an example. These are jobs where you enter the wild and face monsters head-on. They fit the criteria perfectly. The superhumans just need to keep fighting the monsters while they practice their fighting skills, and they will get a lot of cultivation resources. Their cultivation realms will naturally increase by leaps and bounds as well.
“If they manage to record footage of exciting fights or kill high-grade superbeasts, they might even become famous overnight. It’s no wonder then why countless superhumans flock to those jobs like bees to honey.
“But what about the secret police in Dragon City?
“First, due to the needs of the job, most of the secret police and adjudicators cannot reveal their identities. They can’t appear under the spotlight and become heroes welcomed with cheers by the people.
“Second, similarly, due to the unique nature of our work, we can’t guarantee that we will run into superhuman criminals every day either.
“One hunter might kill hundreds of monsters while training for a month in the wild. After eating a large amount of monster flesh and gene medicine as well as gathering countless spirit energy and fighting experience, he or she will naturally reach a brand new cultivation realm.
“But the secret police in Dragon City sometimes spend a month to get to the bottom of a case. It’s highly likely that we will spend twenty-nine days on trivial clues and writing official documents.
“It’s also highly likely that we will not sleep for seven days and nights just to keep a criminal under surveillance. And it’s even likelier that after we will find that we ended up on the wrong path after spending a great deal of time and energy on it, which means that we ended up doing something useless.
“And when we capture the criminal in the end, we have to do it quickly and suppress the criminal instantly. We can’t give the superhuman criminal any chance to retaliate. This means that we can’t improve our fighting strength.
“The path of cultivation is an upstream. If you don’t improve, you fall back. If you get more of such criminal cases, you won’t have any time to train at all, and you will be left far behind by the hunters, pathfinders, and explorers. Meng Chao, don’t you think that their choice makes sense?”
Meng Chao scratched his head.
When he thought about it, it made sense.
During his three-month training in the wild, he spent every second focusing on killing monsters, harvesting, and eating valuable materials. His cultivation improved by leaps and bounds basically every day.
If he spent those three months investigating and monitoring superhuman criminals, he would have been lucky if his fighting strength did not decline.
“The secret police has never been a good job. It could only attract talented people through good benefits. But we face real troubles in this regard too.” Shen Yupeng shrugged. “Why is hunting such a popular job among superhumans? It’s because when hunters form a superhuman fighting squad, they can enter the wild to hunt monsters and gather a large amount of resources.
“If we speak using business terms, hunter squads are the first line of business of the industry, and they create direct profit.
“While hunters hunt monsters, they also harvest resources from monsters. They distribute those materials on the spot and eat them. After something’s digested, no one can say anything. First, because it’s hard to examine what anyone does in the fog. No one knows just how many monsters hunters have killed and how many they brought back. Second, when they create profit for their companies, it’s impossible for the companies to create many clauses to restrict them. The more they eat, the stronger they become, and the more game they can bring back. There’s nothing wrong with that.
“We can use the same logic with schools like Agricultural University or the four research centers. Even though they don’t receive direct benefits from the hunter squads, they produce large amounts of research results and create a lot of companies with their alumni. They even work together with the Red Dragon Army to organize pathfinding and hunting trips. From it, they can also get a lot of cultivation resources so that the people in these organizations can live comfortably.
“But it’s different for the adjudicator court. We’re a law enforcement organization. We can’t go into the wild to hunt monsters and create direct benefits. We can only rely on the Survival Committee to give us funds.
“And due to the unique nature of our job, it means that we can’t have side jobs or create our own business. If a secret police officer captures superhuman criminals while having his own business, it’ll sound odd no matter what, right?”
Meng Chao thought about it and nodded. “It does sound off.”
“But this is how we operated in the past,” Shen Yupeng said expressionlessly. “If we relied solely on the funds from the Survival Committee, it’d be impossible to satisfy the cultivation needs of every secret police officer.
“Besides, the lost people are not normal criminals. They’re superhumans with supernatural abilities. If we want to capture them silently, we have to do even more meticulous work and face greater risks than our colleagues on Earth.
“There are plenty of times when we have to venture into gray areas and support gray forces of power that are loyal to us. Then, through not exactly legal channels, get a large amount of cultivation resources or clues that we can’t get through legal means.
“While we handle superhuman criminals, it’s inevitable that we sometimes use some simple and brutish methods. We might even end up working with some superhuman criminals who are not that dangerous to deal with superhuman criminals who are really evil.
“During this process, there have been many secret police officers who couldn’t resist the temptation and gradually fell from being ‘gray’ to ‘black’. They collaborated with superhuman criminals and even became puppets of abnormal beasts without their knowledge.”
Meng Chao knew that Shen Yupeng was talking about the matter a few months ago.
The Noble Descent Hotel ambush had been like a deep water bomb. Even though it had detonated a long time ago, the shockwaves were still making the city shake.
“After this reorganization where we had to cut off the poisonous parts within our organization, the general atmosphere in the adjudicator court has changed. I can assure you that right now, you can’t find any traces of illegal activity. There’s no gray areas, no one is keeping cultivation resources in secret, and all of our rules and procedures allow us to endure the strictest tests,” Shen Yupeng said.
“Of course, because of it, the position of secret police officer and adjudicator under the adjudicator court lost all its attractive qualities. There’s no cultivation resources, no room for getting stronger, and no chance of being revered by the public. It’s a tough and tiring job.
“If that wasn’t enough, while we’re in the process of capturing superhuman criminals, if we’re careless, it’s far too easy for us to end up causing collateral damage in terms of destroying buildings and harming innocent citizens. That’ll make us scapegoats for all sorts of crimes.
“So, a superhuman must be really taking things too hard on himself or herself to give up on being a hunter, pathfinder, or explorer and choose the adjudicator court.
“Most superhumans still know how to calculate, so even though we lost one-third of our members, it’s not much.
“The secret police who remain have not found their next prospect or have not made up their minds to create their own companies yet. One of the reasons behind it is because our workload has increased by one-third its original amount. The other reason is because we have to study the One Hundred Ways to Destroy Dragon City and imitate Lu Siya and the other model superhumans to do volunteer work and teach poor children how to cultivate so that we can become close to the normal citizens.
“Due to various reasons, it just can’t be helped that we didn’t manage to discover the Deification Capsules and the mastermind who created the whole plan beforehand.”