Chapter 135: Spoils

The group searched through the entire base for any gang members that might still be hiding. They ensured that no one was left alive, except for the Merkarian student with the blasted hand, who they found still clinging to life.

He had lost quite a lot of blood, but due to the remarkable resilience of martial artists, he was unconscious yet still breathing. They dressed his wound and saved him in order to take him back.

They could not say how the Department of Administrative Affairs was going to deal with him, but it did not concern them.

As they searched through the base, they found a rather large basement. It had handcuffs and shackles, along with traces of people being held before. This meant that the Rusty Bronze Gang had kept quite a large number of people locked up recently, which was of little surprise. Almost all the gangs in the wilderness were involved in human trafficking. The Rusty Bronze Gang had only killed all the prisoners because they were getting ready to go back to Merka.

Once the group made sure that there were no more threats left, they felt at ease enough to clean up and inspect the items in the base. The first thing they found was a substantial amount of small bills in the largest tent in the base, which they put away.

The bag with the bills wasn’t big, but it contained a lot of money. Yet Mitai did not take the bag with him when he fled. It was likely that he intended to distribute this money to the rest of the gang since they were planning to return to Merka with the exchange group. This would explain why they had prepared money beforehand.

If Mitai did not take the bills with him, it meant that he had something even more valuable on him. The group went to search through his and Juan’s corpses, and they found two numbered gold certificates issued by Grand Prosperity Finance.

Anyone could cash the gold certificates. The group did not know how much they were worth, but they shouldn’t be on the low end. Chen Chuan’s team was going to profit.

They discussed it among themselves and decided to talk about how to distribute the loot after they cashed in the certificates.

Aside from those things, they also found stacks of Smoked Hills trade coupons in a corner of a tent. They could only be used in Smoked Hills, but they were still worth something, so they took them as well.

Just then, Feng Xiaoqi exclaimed, “Take a look at this!”

They went over and saw a working fridge, which had sealed human organs. All of them scowled when they saw it, immediately linking them to certain bad things.

Chen Chuan took a quick look. Some of the organs resembled mutated tissue, but he was sure that the Rusty Bronze Gang didn’t have the ability to get such things. They either stole them or were transferring them on someone else’s behalf. “Let’s destroy them.”

The group nodded.

“There’s this too.” Feng Xiaoqi pointed at a box with a combination lock. They wondered what was contained inside it.

They did not know how to pry open the combination lock, but if they tried to force it open, they might damage what was inside. Yet if they did not figure out what was inside the box, they could not take it with them.

Wei Changan turned around to Cai Si. “Fourth, get Lao Fan over here.”

Cai Si nodded and left. Soon, one of the technicians walked over. He checked the lock and went back to grab some tools before he started carefully picking it.

Since it would take some time to open the lock, the group returned to searching through the base.

Meanwhile, Wei Changan had one of his teammates take pictures of each gang member’s body and of the base’s condition. He also asked to take things that would mark this place as that of the Rusty Bronze Gang. Once they were back, they could present them to the Constabulary and get the reward for the bounties.

While it would not be much and some of the gang members didn’t even have bounties, the money would cover some of the mission costs.

Once they were done, one of Wei Changan’s teammates walked over. “Changan, I’ve repaired the vehicles here. I also switched the tires. We should be able to drive them back.”

The Rusty Bronze Gang had a total of nine vehicles. Aside from the SUV that was overturned and badly damaged, they should be able to drive the rest of them back, aside from the two armored vehicles. They could, however, sell those to people who dealt exclusively in illegal vehicles. This would cover some more of their costs.

Ren Xiaotian said that he had connections for that and did not mind taking up that task.

Wei Changan had such connections too, but he was still a Martial Valor University student and a licensed agent, so he did not want to dabble in that area too much.

They found quite a lot of self-made and Merkarian guns and bullets in the base, but they weren’t impressed by them, so they decided to get rid of them right there and then. They only kept the guns produced by the Great Shun Republic along with the ammunition, because they might need them in the future.

As they continued searching, they heard the technician call out that he opened the lock.

Everyone gathered around and waited for him to open the box. Something strange was sealed inside. It was around thirty centimeters long and looked like an enlarged silkworm chrysalis with a few outstretched limbs.

“What’s this? An insect?” Feng Xiaoqi asked.

“It’s an implant,” Ren Xiaotian said grimly.

Most of the team knew what implants were, but they had never seen one as bizarre as that.

Ren Xiaotian went over. He didn’t touch it with his hands, just observed it. “I can’t see any company logo on it. It should still be in its experimental stage.”

“The Merkarians worship nature and don’t use implants. The gang must have gotten it to sell it. I wonder what sort of implant this is, though,” Chen Chuan said.

“Does that mean that this thing is worth a lot of money?” Feng Xiaoqi’s eyes sparkled.

“It is, but trouble will also come with it,” the technician shot him down.

“Forget it, then.” Feng Xiaoqi immediately shook his head.

“Since we saw it, we might as well take it with us. I’ll think of a way to get rid of it when we’re back,” Chen Chuan said after some careful thinking.

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

He did not need to worry too much. Both domestic and foreign companies often released experimental implants into the market to observe their effects. They couldn’t care less whose hands they passed through before finally ending up in someone’s body.

Chen Chuan planned to ask Cheng Zitong how to get rid of it. If Cheng Zitong didn’t have a solution, he could bring it to Lei Guangcheng or the Constabulary.

Once they gathered all the valuable items in the base, it was already past 9 a.m., and the group got ready to leave.

Since they had to bring back the SUVs and the gang’s vehicles, everyone had to sit at a wheel, but Chen Chuan, Feng Xiaoqi, and Wu Han didn’t know how to drive, so the others taught them on the spot.

Out on the wide, open wilderness with no traffic rules, no traffic lights, and no concern for fuel consumption, they only needed to keep the vehicle moving, so driving wasn’t all that difficult. After Wei Changan and the others gave them a crash course, they grasped the basics in no time.

On their way back, they received a telegram from Lin Xiaodi that the Merkarian exchange group was preparing to depart, and they thanked their lucky star for attacking the Rusty Bronze Gang at night. If the oak leaf was not with them, it would have been difficult to complete the mission. They would have had to attack the exchange group at the checkpoints.

When they approached Yangzhi City, the person Ren Xiaotian had contacted through the telegraph had already gotten a team ready to take over the vehicles.

Ren Xiaotian went out to hand them over. Clearly, this wasn’t the first time they conducted such a business, because the entire process went over smoothly and in a friendly manner.

With the trade done, they parted ways and drove back into the city with the SUV fleet. All of them got back to Martial Valor University without a hitch.

Chen Chuan parted ways with Wei Changan’s team and asked them to take the unconscious, injured Merkarian student. They should hand him along with the photos of the gang members to the Constabulary.

Then, Chen Chuan called the car rental service to tell them that their SUVs were free. He also said they should send him an invoice later for the damaged parts.

With those things taken care of, Chen Chuan, Luo Kaiyuan, Feng Xiaoqi, Wei Dong, and Wu Han went to the cafeteria.

Since they had just returned from a battle, they gave off a threatening air, especially Chen Chuan and Wu Han, whose weapons made them look even more dangerous. Some of the more perceptive students subconsciously avoided them. Meanwhile, the experienced upperclassmen found themselves glancing at them twice over.

It was lunch hour, so they ate together and returned to their dorms.

The next thing they needed to do was to count the money in the bag and the Smoked Hills trade coupons. Feng Xiaoqi volunteered to do that.

As for the two gold certificates, since there was no time limit for them, Chen Chuan intended to cash them in after the mission. Then, he would decide how to distribute the money.

Once everything was finished, Chen Chuan gave a few more simple instructions before sending the others back to rest.

After they left, he took out the box containing the oak leaf. He picked it up and observed the leaf.

Its veins were really clear, and it was still all green. It also let out a faint fragrance that brought comfort to anyone who smelled it. Unlike the first time Chen Chuan touched it, this time, his second self did not blur out.

The oak leaf only showed its effects through a Merkarian ceremony, but the Merkarians never told how to conduct that ceremony, while the Great Shun Republic had never cared about learning it. That might no longer be true in the future, but it was so for the moment.

Regardless of whether the oak leaf was useful or not, it had nothing to do with Chen Chuan. He could not possibly figure out its secrets, not that he needed to. His targets were only the evaluation points from the Foreign Affairs Department and the right to go to Central City. The latter was his main goal. Everything else was secondary.

After observing the oak leaf for a while, Chen Chuan put it away and went to his phone. Once the call went through, he said, “Mr. Lei, I got the leaf back.”

“You did?”

Lei Guangcheng was surprised, because the information he received was that the Merkarian exchange group intended to depart today. He had even notified Chen Chuan about it. To think that Chen Chuan had managed to reclaim the leaf before the exchange group even left.

“Tell me what happened. I want to know whether we missed anything,” he said.

Chen Chuan told him the important parts of the mission, and Lei Guangcheng nodded after hearing about it. “I see. You got news of where the oak leaf is. That’s even better. You didn’t need to meet the exchange group at all.

“If it’s convenient for you, bring the oak leaf to my place. I’ll go with you to the Foreign Affairs Department. You’ll want this mission to be done as soon as possible to avoid further complications.”

“Got it. I’ll head over right away,” Chen Chuan said.

“Don’t take any random car. You’re in the university now, aren’t you? Wait there. I’ll tell He Nan’s driver to pick you up,” Lei Guangcheng said after some careful pondering.

Chen Chuan agreed to it. He went to take a shower and changed his clothes before heading to the university entrance. He Nan’s Phreatia had arrived at this point. Chen Chuan greeted the driver and got in. Forty minutes later, they got to Lei Guangcheng’s place. After a brief exchange, Chen Chuan went with him to the Foreign Affairs Department.

There, Chen Chuan handed the oak leaf to Liu Zhan, who was incredibly excited. The Foreign Affairs Department had to take the fall for losing the oak leaf, and he was utterly humiliated by the event, but Chen Chuan had managed to reclaim it, so things were going to change. The top government officials were going to notice him now. Losing the oak leaf ended up being a good thing.

He held Chen Chuan’s hand and thanked him profusely. He even offered warmly, “If you need our help in the future, you must tell us. I’ll do my best to return this favor.”

Chen Chuan thought about it and said sincerely, “I actually do have a favor to ask.”