Ye Mingqiu stood in place waiting, his gaze falling on the Small Animal Protection Association branch not far away.
This was the 17th association he’d seen, and the number of associations in Happy Town should be more than this. It’s just that he hasn’t been to enough places yet, so he hasn’t found them all.
Based on the intel he’d collected before, these associations don’t have much actual value for Happy Town’s production work, but in order to give their own existence some meaning, they’re constantly out there trying to get a sense of presence.
They might even make some things more troublesome.
For example, the official government plans to build a public toilet, but can’t just build it directly.
First, people from the Equality Association will come to see whether the division between male and female areas is reasonable. If the area differs by more than 1%, then the designer of the building will very likely have their plan sent straight back.
Next, people from the Small Animal Protection Association will also come for an on-site inspection to see if building a toilet here will affect the survival of local small animals.
After that, there will be all sorts of other associations joining in with various reasons. For example, the Women’s Protection Association will inspect the women’s area; the Disabled Protection Association will inspect whether there are dedicated facilities for the disabled; the Air Quality Supervision Association will come for an on-site inspection to see whether it will affect air quality, and so on.
There are all kinds of associations. Some things are necessary, but most aren’t, and they turn simple matters into something extremely complicated, greatly lowering urban work efficiency and making optimization harder instead.
The associations must find something to do; if there’s nothing for them to do, it proves their existence is useless and they’ll be disbanded. So… the way they stir things up is, to a certain extent, also to maintain their own survival. Even if it causes negative impact, that will still be considered a reasonable price to ensure work stability with no potential risks.
Utterly abstract.
….
Half a day later.
Ye Mingqiu and the Steward exchanged gifts, completing the most basic surface-level procedure. The whole process seemed perfectly normal; the other party’s movements looked very honest, like someone who’d been tortured until he had no tricks left.
But Ye Mingqiu would never trust appearances.
After returning to Uluru’s home, the first thing he did was tear open the gift box. Inside lay the Life Crystal he had picked earlier.
On the surface it looked fine. Then he carefully inspected the box and found a very tiny micro locator installed inside. If you didn’t look closely, you’d never notice it.
‘Good thing I’ve watched similar tutorials before and know what places are convenient for hiding things, the most counterintuitive spots.’
Ye Mingqiu couldn’t help thinking.
After that, he searched twice more carefully. Only after triple-checking there was no problem did he crumple the gift box into a ball, casually toss it into the trash can, and leave the other party’s house with the Life Crystal.
Under normal circumstances, ordinary people rarely realize that someone would come openly into their home and then bring a threat in with them.
But this is Dream Demon Island.
The houses here have no locks.
And to keep up appearances, there are no cameras installed inside the houses. Uluru is very unlikely to notice anything, and even if he does, Ye Mingqiu has leverage on him, so it’s not a big problem.
Although their relationship on the surface isn’t particularly strained right now, if given the chance, Uluru would absolutely kill him at the first opportunity, and would not allow this threat to continue existing.
Besides…
The streets are full of cameras, but the Steward hasn’t used them and instead resorted to the clumsy method of a locator. This is because Ye Mingqiu is involved with gatekeeping; if someone checks from above, his investigation would become the biggest stain and he’d end up being suspected and arrested.
‘Didn’t I still find it anyway?’
Ye Mingqiu let out a soft chuckle.
Then he went back to his own room and used the Blood Spear to absorb that mid-grade Life Crystal worth 300 Order Points.
[Absorption Complete]
[Current Life Force: 100/100]
Once his Life Force absorption reached the limit, Ye Mingqiu directly used the Life Force to strengthen the Blood Spear, and for the strengthening Attribute he chose basic Attack, putting everything into basic Attack. He didn’t pick the other two Attributes at all, not even once.
And so, he ended up with a module like this.
[Strengthening Module]
Life Limit +0
Basic Attack +4
Life recovery +0
[Blood Spear]
Attack Power: 112–140
Looking at the Blood Spear in his hand, a satisfied smile involuntarily appeared on Ye Mingqiu’s face. With Attack Power raised to this level, it should be about enough.
Given that the normal Life Limit for Spiritualists/Transcenders is only 100, his Blood Spear’s Attack Power has reached an astonishing 112–140. Even though it has no other special Ability, the Effect should be quite good.
Although this weapon has no special mechanics, barring accidents, an Ordinary person touching it once would just die.
Very nice.
Also, from his previous observations, the basic residents of Happy Town are Level 1–3, whereas the Stewards are identified by their clothes. Stewards in light blue clothes are Level 4–6; those in dark blue clothes are Level 7–10. The color of the clothing also symbolizes the gap in strength.
The Ordinary residents in Happy Town are clearly weaker than outsiders. They themselves don’t have any special mechanics and have low combat power. But this might just be because they’re not combat units to begin with, so it’s perfectly normal for them to have no combat power.
But when it comes to Stewards, they inherently possess law enforcement authority and have relatively high Levels, so they should have special Combat Talents.
“Ding!”
The Spirit Realm’s notification sound rang out.
——Private Message——
Broken Star: I’ve figured out the situation on my side. The island I’m currently on is Autumn Island, and inside there’s also an ultra-high-risk area just like the one you have over there.