Book 3, Chapter 194: The Union

The Corporation Union, otherwise known simply as the Union, was an organization formed of many transnational mega corporations all over the world. The Union was originally formed with the intention of fending off attacks from the other world. After all, not all governments were as strong as the Great Shun Republic.

But as more companies joined the Union and its influence grew, it grew into an organization whose power surpassed multiple governments.

As part of the Resolution Department, Chen Chuan had read about the Union before. It was impossible for him to not know about it.

The Union assigned different ranks to its members based on their scale, their location, and their influence. Its main members shared resources, information, and risks while putting pressure on various governments to form or cancel certain policies.

While Ferris Wheel wasn’t as big as the mega corporations, once it joined, the Union could help it avoid international surveillance, share information with it, help it lobby for certain policies, put pressure on the government, and give it access to certain technology that non-members could not have.

The Union didn’t just have a great influence in their world. It had also formed a team that was part of the World Ring’s defenders, and it was incredibly powerful.

Hence, the major countries chose to tolerate it for the time being. After all, the Great Crash was right around the corner. If they started fighting among themselves, they would just end up weaker.

If Ferris Wheel managed to become a member, the government wouldn’t be able to take it out anymore.

Chen Chuan didn’t ask Wu Quan what the central government intended to do, but it was obvious that the Great Shun Republic was bound to do something to prevent this from happening, though he honestly couldn’t predict what was going to happen.

This wasn’t his burden to bear, though.

His task was to fulfill the World Ring Defense System’s request to participate in defending the World Ring, then look for a lecturer who could guide him in his next step.

No matter how the world changed, Chen Chuan had to rely on his own strength to face it. That was the only thing he could depend on.

After ending his call with Wu Quan, Chen Chuan drove back to Martial Valor University and put all the weapons in his training room.

He had collected quite a lot of them, and they were quite rich in variety. They occupied quite a lot of space, though, while Chen Chuan only had a simple weapons rack and a few empty closets. This wasn’t the ideal place for displaying the weapons.

The training room wasn’t made to store weapons, nor was it a good place to maintain them. It was time for Chen Chuan to move them all to his house.

He decided to do it today.

He put the weapons into a weapons bag and had to take two trips before he was able to bring them all to his car. Then, he drove to his house. Since it was nearby, he made it to his house in less than ten minutes.

There were five guards protecting his place. He contacted them with his Realm Pass, and they opened the gate for him. Once Chen Chuan parked his car in the detached garage, he refused all offers of helping move the weapons inside and brought them into the weapons display room.

It was completely different from his room. It was separated into different display areas and had storage areas for different weapons on the walls and shelves.

Aside from bracketed partitions, the room also had shelves embedded into its walls and wall-mounted shelves. There were also lamps above each shelf, which allowed one to better admire all the weapons placed within.

Chen Chuan wiped down all the weapons carefully before placing them on the shelves he had picked for them.

Once he was done, he took a few steps back to take a good, long look, and he was instantly filled with satisfaction and fulfillment.

The only thing he found regrettable was that he didn’t have enough weapons yet. He could scan his displayed weapons in almost an instant.

When he brought them out of his training room, he had thought that he had amassed a lot of weapons, but now, he found that they occupied only a small corner of his display room.

I have to work harder...

That didn’t stop him from admiring the weapons a little longer before he left the room and shut the door behind him. The weapons display room was a semi-enclosed room, making it easy to maintain the weapons inside, and he didn’t need someone to constantly keep an eye on them.

With that done, Chen Chuan went downstairs to brew himself a cup of tea before going to the balcony on the fourth floor. He grabbed a chair, sat down, and admired the view outside.

The scenery here was pretty good. He could hear birds chirping, and green plants were everywhere. In front of his house was a wetland park. The house was actually a better place for living, if not for the fact that Martial Valor University had better security and Hongfu as a sparring partner.

If Chen Chuan wanted to make the security here better, he first needed a domain interference entity. Otherwise, it would be far too easy for others to invade the place. Also, a house without a resonator guarding it was no different from being open for everyone.

So, if he wanted to move here, Chen Chuan had to first get his hands on a domain interference entity, resonator nest, and a resonator.

With that thought in mind, he turned on his Realm Pass’ screen and did a cursory check.

Since he was now a Third Limit martial artist, he could go to many platforms he couldn’t access in the past.

But after some casual browsing, he started getting a lot of advertisements. Many of them were aggressively pushing him to buy utility puppets.

He took a look and found that they were all from Paperdoll.

At this point, puppets were no longer an unfamiliar concept to him. The guards downstairs and Thirteen were all from this company.

Aside from being guards, some of the puppets also had resonator abilities. Many middle- and upper-class members of society used them.

Through hypnosis, secret keys in the form of implants, and medicine, Paperdoll could control the puppets entirely and ensure that they were loyal only to their buyers. They promised that even if the clients ordered the puppets to attack Paperdoll itself, the puppets wouldn’t disobey them.

Proto-Being was the best when it came to puppets, but it only produced premium products, and puppets weren’t their main business, so Paperdoll had the most extensive operations in terms of puppets in the Great Shun Republic.

Speaking of which, Proto-Being had a branch company in Jibei Road’s Central City, and it was among the mega corporations in Majestic Light District. It was also one of Martial Valor University’s important investors, though it never made its presence blatantly known.

Unless someone mentioned it, most people overlooked its existence. Yet Wu Quan mentioned that Proto-Being was an important member of the Union, and it was not to be forgotten.

The Proto-Being card Chen Chuan had suggested that his parents had some ties with the company, but the card had been rendered useless more than ten years ago.

There were plenty of unanswered mysteries in this.

But Chen Chuan was patient. He believed that as the medicine continued uncovering memories for him, he would find clues and discover the truth.

After finishing his tea, he put on the Realm Pass Liang Guanghai had given him and contacted the woman from before. The last time they met, he had learned that she was Officer Ji.

Once the call went through, he said, “Officer Ji, Special Officer Liang asked me to report to duty before the end of the month. I’m done with all my tasks at hand and can be on standby for duty any time now.”

Officer Ji then sent him a form and said, “Officer Chen, please fill out the registration form and send it back to me. If you have any questions, you can send a message or call me.”

“Okay,” Chen Chuan said and took a look at the form. This was a registration form for the World Ring Defense System. Upon filling it out, he sent it back.

Soon, Officer Ji called him back and said, “I’ve submitted your form. Please wait patiently. We’ll send you your mission within three days. Please get ready for it, and don’t accept other missions or assignments during this period of time.”

“Got it. Thanks for the reminder,” Chen Chuan replied.

Since he was about to take part in a defense mission and didn’t know how long it was going to take, he needed to call all his frequent contacts to give them a heads-up. Wu Quan had mentioned that the mission wouldn’t take too long, but Chen Chuan was inclined to believe that it wouldn’t end too fast.

He called Gao Ming and told him about it before calling Wu Bei. Then, he contacted Tan Zhi and asked him whether he could take care of Dawncall again. Tan Zhi had no problem with it. He even mentioned that he was no longer living in the dorms but had rented a house outside so that it would be easier for him to train with a lecturer.

“If you want to drop by and take a look, you’re welcome to come whenever,” he said and sent an address.

Chen Chuan took a look and found that it wasn’t far away from Martial Valor University. There was a famous dance bar fifty meters away, along with a dance and drama theater within two kilometers.

He laughed at that. Tan Zhi had picked a good place for himself.

After that, he contacted Qi Gao, who took a long time before answering, and when he spoke, his voice was hoarse and full of exhaustion.

“What’s wrong, Mr. Qi?” Chen Chuan noticed that something was off.

“I’ve been meaning to contact you. If you want me to buy more ritual materials, I might have a hard time getting them for you,” Qi Gao apologized.

Chen Chuan raised an eyebrow at that. Qi Gao had been the one buying all his ritual materials. They were of good quality, and he always got a sufficient amount, so Chen Chuan considered him a good supply channel.

But even if that was no longer the case, it was okay. He now had Clear Road Transport, and he could get ritual materials from many places in the lower city district.

Chen Chuan was more concerned about Qi Gao’s safety. “Are you okay?”

After some hesitation, Qi Gao said, “The friend selling me the ritual materials has been making money on the side, and the person behind him found out. He fled from the lower city district because of it. I’ve found a place for him to stay, but a lower city district gang came looking for him.

“He has been abducted, but the gang members aren’t finished. They want to figure out where all the ritual materials went. I can’t go back home anymore, and I’ve been living in my car with my daughter.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“Around five days,” Qi Gao answered.

“Where are you right now?” Chen Chuan asked. Once he got his answer, he said, “Okay. Stay calm. I’ll be there soon.”

Chen Chuan finished his tea, then called his family and told them that he was going to be sent on a mission soon and wouldn’t be able to contact them for some time.

“If you have anything you want to tell me but I’m not answering, call Gao Ming.”

After everything was done, he went downstairs, got into his car, and headed to the location Qi Gao had mentioned.