MCL CH68

Chapter 068: Must find a way to recover strength as soon as possible…

Su Qiuyin put away the phone he had just hung up and looked up at the figures coming and going in the distance.

The regional manager next to him wiped the sweat from his forehead, clearly curious about who was on the other end of the call, that Director Su would still choose to answer at such an urgent time.

As if not sensing the questioning gaze, Su Qiuyin had already returned to work mode in a second. “Have the personnel from the two neighboring cities arrived?”

“They’re on their way and are expected to arrive within 10 minutes,” the regional manager replied with a grave expression. “But even if they all arrive, I estimate they can only hold on for a short while. I don’t know what’s going on. It was bad enough that rifts were suddenly appearing every few days some time ago, but now so many have popped up at once! If this continues at this rate, I’m afraid…”

“There is no ‘afraid.’ What you need to do now is to completely seal off all road sections in the J1345 jurisdiction to prevent ordinary vehicles from entering by mistake.” Su Qiuyin interrupted the rest of his sentence in a low tone. “Even if the rifts continue to appear at this speed, the United Administration will complete all cleanup work before these rifts open. Unless all the ability users under my command are martyred, the Third Bureau is the last line of defense for all the cities right now.”

These words moved the regional manager.

Among the thirteen bureaus of the United Administration, each of the 13 departments had its own duties. The Third Bureau, which Su Qiuyin was in charge of, was mainly responsible for the rift defense work in various provinces and cities, making it the absolute front-line department in every sense. Whether it was the rifts that the local action teams monitored and resolved daily, or sudden emergencies like the one now, as long as these people were around, it was the strongest guarantee for the city’s residents. But this time—the frequency of these rifts appearing was simply too fast.

“It’s about time. I’ll leave things here to you for now.” As Su Qiuyin spoke, he took off his white gloves and tossed them aside. At his signal, someone next to him had already handed the monitoring computer to the manager. “It’s been 1 hour and 23 minutes since the third group went in. They should be able to finish the cleanup before I come out of this A-class rift. Give them 5 minutes to adjust then, and have them directly take over the sealing work of the next rift. By then, the nearby support teams will have arrived. You arrange for them to proceed according to the regulations, and I’ll make unified adjustments when I get out.”

The regional manager hurriedly took the computer. His eyelids twitched fiercely as several more rift detection alarms popped up. In the end, he couldn’t help but ask one more question, “The low and medium-level rifts can still be handled, but with our situation, what if a new rift of A-class intensity or higher appears before you come out?”

Su Qiuyin had already turned and started walking away, leaving only a sentence from a distance. “The Third Bureau has a new member on his way to report. If there’s any trouble, just let him solve it.”

The regional manager was slightly stunned.

Since the last incident, hadn’t the Third Bureau had almost no personnel changes for three years?
A new member was suddenly coming, and he actually had the strength to easily solve an A-class rift!?

In a flash, Su Qiuyin was ready to enter the rift. He seemed to suddenly remember something and turned his head to look over. “If he doesn’t cooperate, just tell him that now is the best opportunity for him to contribute his meager strength to the people. If he refuses, the unfinished onboarding process can just be skipped.”

“Ah?”
The regional manager, “…Ah.”

He stared blankly as Su Qiuyin and the members of the Third Bureau were teleported to the A-class rift with the help of a space-ability user. A long time later, he was still a bit dazed.

So, this person who was coming hadn’t even fully completed the onboarding process?
And aside from that, would a newcomer who just came to report dare to defy Director Su’s orders?

“Brother Zhang, the support team is here!”

The regional manager suddenly snapped back to his senses. Seeing several new rift detection markers appear on the computer screen again, he cursed under his breath and hurriedly started walking. “Quick, take me there! Have them get ready and prepare to enter the rifts directly!”

Vehicles continuously entered and exited the command post in front. Teams of ability users were constantly being teleported back, only to be sent to new mission locations again by the space-ability users.

The regional manager’s expression had gradually become extremely grave.

Not to mention that the available manpower was becoming tighter, but as if bad things never come alone, before he could even wait for Su Qiuyin to return, they had actually detected the presence of another suspected A-class rift.

What were they to do? With the strength of the ability users currently at the command post, there was no way to handle this rift.

Could they only hope that this rift wouldn’t enter its active period too quickly?

Seeing someone rush in through the door, the regional manager’s expression tensed even more. “What happened now?”

“It’s not really a big deal…” The person tried to calm his rapid breathing after running. “It’s just that a car insists on going through the highway entrance. We can’t stop it at all.”

The regional manager grew more and more irritable. “Tell that car that there’s a rift cleanup operation here, and to take a detour.”

“We’ve said all that, but he said he’s here to see Director Su.”

The regional manager’s movements paused slightly. “Who is he looking for?”

The person repeated, “Director Su. But Director Su is on a mission right now. Do you think we should find a place for him to wait… look, it’s not going to solve anything if we keep going back and forth like this. It’s already chaotic here, we really don’t have time to deal with this person of unknown origin… hey, Brother Zhang? Brother Zhang, where are you going?”

In a flash, the regional manager had already strode out the door. “Where is he? Take me to see him!”

When he arrived at the scene, he finally understood why the others hadn’t taken this man looking for Director Su seriously.

A taxi.
When this person came, he was actually riding in a taxi!

As soon as Lin Xi was led into the rest area, he saw the regional manager rushing in. After a brief conversation to confirm each other’s identities, his expression became somewhat complicated. “Making me work before I’m even officially hired? Doesn’t that seem a little bit against our country’s ‘Labor Law’?”

“Director Su said that if you refuse this mission, your onboarding process will be directly canceled.” In that instant, the regional manager was incomparably amazed by Su Qiuyin’s foresight.

“…”

Lin Xi was speechless for a brief moment, then helplessly rubbed his soft hair. “Fine. What’s left to be handled now? What level is the rift?”

“We’ve newly detected an A-class rift here with no one assigned to it yet.” As the regional manager spoke, his expression towards Lin Xi became more and more expectant, and he even directly used a respectful form of address. “I’ll arrange as many people as possible to go in with you. Do you think… that’s okay?”

Lin Xi nodded. “Should be fine.”

The regional manager: “Then do you think you’ll need…”

Before he could finish, Lin Xi had already continued, his reply and tone both very considerate. “I see that you guys are under a lot of pressure with manpower right now. There’s no need to arrange for others to follow me. I can go in by myself.”

It was precisely because it was too considerate that the regional manager was stunned. “Just, by yourself?”

Lin Xi: “Mm.”

The regional manager: “…This is an A-class rift!”

Even when Director Su Qiuyin conducted cleanups of this level, he had at least two or three people with him just in case.

Lin Xi still replied, “It’s enough. I just can’t guarantee the speed.”

He stood up from his seat, smiled, and looked around, asking, “Where is the portal this time? Can someone take me there?”

The person next to him was also stunned. Hearing his words, he subconsciously glanced at the manager. Only after receiving an affirmative reply did he hurriedly respond, “I’ll do it, I’ll do it.”

Lin Xi smiled very politely. “Then I’ll have to trouble you.”

As he spoke, as if not sensing the shocked gazes of the others, he followed along at an unhurried pace.

It wasn’t until that figure disappeared from sight that the others at the scene came back to their senses. After a long while, one of them stammered, “To be able to clean up an A-class rift alone, could this person’s ability intensity be—”

The regional manager cut them off in a timely manner. “…This is not something we should be asking about.”

Although he said that, his gaze remained on the corner for a long time without moving.

No wonder Director Su could entrust the matter to him with such confidence.

Although he didn’t know when this ability user had awakened, there was no doubt that the strength of the Hua Country United Administration had finally grown a little stronger.

Lin Xi gracefully followed the person leading the way downstairs. He listened calmly to the cheerful voice in his mind and said silently, “Sometimes, your brain really does turn quite fast.”

[Isn’t that because your own calculations are so loud?]
[Hee hee hee, if no one is following, then all the crystal cores inside should be mine, right? Right?]

“But you can’t eat too much. Otherwise, if the cleanup team goes in and finds too few crystal cores, it will still easily arouse suspicion.” As Lin Xi said this, a faint smile hung on his face. “But don’t worry, I will definitely feed you as full as possible.”

With so many rifts suddenly appearing, the United Administration was bound to be swamped. It was a very reasonable thing to trade a bit of combat power for corresponding crystal cores as compensation.

[Getting full is impossible. It’s impossible to get full in this lifetime.]

Lin Xi didn’t respond. He looked at the portal that had already appeared in his sight not far away, silently raised his eyes, and glanced at the azure sky above.

So far, his plan had been executed quite smoothly. He just didn’t know how things were on Yan Xingzhou’s side.

For Samuel to lose contact, the contaminant in that rift must be very tricky.

He had always been a very self-aware person. In the current situation, the top priority was to find a way to recover his strength as soon as possible.

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