Chapter 96: Summoning a Holy Object (Part 2/2)
Translator: Strivon
The social order grew more and more chaotic in the reception hall of Frost River Reality. Many people were drawn to the scene by the police’s arrival. The effects of the brawl were brewing.
Frost River Reality's personnel had quite the headache over this matter. The people in charge were constantly negotiating with the police, wishing for the police to quickly take away everyone who was part of the brawl and end the incident. However, the police still needed to conduct some scene investigation work. Tian Si was also one of the parties. This petite school girl was constantly trying to communicate with the police. The three parties—Frost River Reality, the police, and Tian Si—were impeding each other. This deadlock lasted for some time.
When Luo Nan and the others went out, the scene that they saw was none other than this.
Chen Xiaolin finished talking with Xue Lei and had arrived by Luo Nan's side. Her expression was actually a bit affectionate. "Leister called his dad. It seems like the old man's on duty tonight. He just received a dispatch to come right here."
"This is too much of a coincidence." Luo Nan was astonished and baffled. "His father is a special police officer. He's also taking part in an issue of public order such as this?"
"It seems that they've been constantly on a state of alert ever since the explosion in the R&D District. All issues of public order in the city center have been escalated in priority."
Mo Qiu was feeling quite ambivalent at the side. It was great to be able to find a way to resolve the problem but the current situation placed him in an awkward predicament.
He noticed that Chen Xiaolin, a mature young woman, had been discussing matters with Luo Nan ever since proposing the plan to handle the situation. He was the oldest and most experienced of the bunch, yet he had become a side character.
Was it because these two were very familiar with each other?
It was not that Chen Xiaolin was ignoring Mo Qiu's minor sensitivities. Although her traumatizing encounter at Limestone Water Village Pub left behind serious mental scars, it still made her understand that Luo Nan's identity was not as simple as an ordinary high school freshman.
Luo Nan had looked upon that intense and terrifying scene as if it was something completely natural. This situation was practically nothing in comparison.
She was naturally drawn to discussing matters with the one who was best able to maintain his composure.
Chen Xiaolin eyes shifted around as she spoke. Her vision sweeping over several tall and sturdy special police officers wearing exoskeleton armor. However, all the special police officers wore completely enclosed tactical helmets. There were not any clear markings on their armors either. She was unable to tell which one of these officers was Xue Lei's dad. Perhaps he was still at the Area A site…
On the other hand, Luo Nan did not really try looking for Leister's dad. If his dad wanted to help, then he would contact them. If he did not want to help, finding him would be pointless. As such, Luo Nan headed towards the police cars after observing the situation; he wanted to see how Mo Peng and the others were doing.
This brawl was a little weird no matter how one looked at it. Luo Nan wanted to get a step closer to understanding what had happened.
He was seven or eight steps away from the police car containing the participants of the brawl when he was stopped by an ice cold metal arm. It was none other than a special police officer who was nearly two meters tall. This officer towered above him and emitted a not-so-benevolent aura from behind the pitch-black armor.
"Ahead of you is a restricted area. You can't come any closer." The special police officer's deep voice came buzzing out from behind the helmet.
Luo Nan did his best to put on a juvenile expression befitting his age. "Officer, my older brother's inside. I came with him here together..."
"Is that so?" The special police officer blocking the way made a gesture to those behind him. Immediately a comrade came running over asking, "Captain?"
Captain?
The special police officer gave a command the instant Luo Nan was in his stupefaction. "Give the hospital a heads up to first get some urine samples from these people and then perform drug tests. Their behavior was extreme. It is uncertain if drugs are the cause."
...how on earth did he reach this kind of conclusion!? Luo Nan could only laugh bitterly in great astonishment. Meanwhile, his mental senses cut through the visor with just a spurring of his mind. He was confirming something.
And at nearly the same time, the special police officer blocking him opened up his helmet to reveal the angular face of a middle-aged man.
"You're Luo Nan."
"Officer Xue, uh, uncle?"
Though the tone was rather different, the calmness and decisiveness within was exactly the same.
Luo Nan felt that things were a bit awkward. This special police officer in front of him was none other than the Officer Xue who had personally arrested him due to the matter of Xie Junping's Phantom flying car carrying illegal drugs. That was the first time Luo Nan had ever been arrested. His impressions of the time ran quite deep. He even remembered this officer's name. His name was Xue Weilun.
The last name Xue was quite rare with only one family with the name of Xue in Xia City. When this fact was combined with their current location and the post of this officer held, Luo Nan was certain that this burly police officer was absolutely Xue Lei's father. This officer was also the person who they were requesting help from.
Xia City really was quite small!
Luo Nan observed Officer Xue once more. Compared to his first impression of this officer, he was able to find more similarities Xue Lei had with his dad. It was a verification of sorts.
However, it seemed that Officer Xue's first impression of Luo Nan did not have much of a positive effect.
Xue Weilun's brows creased as his stared locked onto Luo Nan. It was as if he was gazing at an escaped criminal. On that day, Luo Nan had been uncommunicative after being detained. He had an obstinate appearance of being uncooperative. The impression Xue Weilun had of Luo Nan ran deep. Luo Nan looked to be a bit more open and carefree today. He was still reserved though.
"Leister said that you're his good friend. How long have you two known each other?"
"Since last week..."
Luo Nan felt that it was very likely that he would be interrogated by Officer Xue, to make sure that Xue Lei was not making friends with criminals. Luckily, his wristband vibrated during this moment of headache. He immediately whispered his apologies and went to check the message on his wristband. The situation was alleviated from its tenseness and awkwardness.
The message actually came from Liu Tao. It was not an instant message, but rather an audio file.
What the heck was that guy up to?
Luo Nan subconsciously opened the audio file and immediately an extremely exaggerated voice came out. "The holy space is the mystical realm where the 'Exchange' is realized..."
What followed was the unending preaching of this voice. There was something about magical spells, seeds, holy objects, and similar jargon. They came rolling out one after another. Words exchanged between Hu Huaying and Liu Tao was even mixed within. From this, Luo Nan was able to extrapolate that Huang Bingzhen was the source of these neurotic preachings.
When Luo Nan had just figured this out, an upheaval occurred within the recording. From within, the series of confusing words suddenly leaped a certain sensitive term.
"The Scales of Truth?" Luo Nan was suddenly excited. Then he heard, "The fairness of the world. The truth of fairness," and so on. The answer was clear as day.
The Order of Justice! This secret order has such a high profile. It certainly did not live up to the definition of ‘secret order’.
At the same time, Luo Nan finally discovered that this recording had been playing for far too long. Xue Weilun was to the side, not really caring. On the contrary, he listened very seriously… and very openly.
Luo Nan was a bit embarrassed. Xue Weilun was not an ability user. It was reasonable to say that Luo Nan should not have let him hear this information.
The following few seconds all involved Huang Bingzhen's ‘Exchange, Exchange’ and similar crazed shouts combined with sounds of a struggle. Luo Nan was just about to transfer playback over to his internal earbuds when...
A sharp and terrifying tone came engulfing everything right at this moment.
"Spider!"
Spider? Luo Nan’s thoughts wandered in that moment but he forcefully recollected himself.
The recording stopped at this point.
Luo Nan's expression turned extremely ugly. He immediately gave Liu Tao a call but no one answered him. He switched to calling Hu Huaying. The outcome was the same.
Luo Nan did not keep still while he was calling. He had turned around and started heading inside.
Xue Weilun's expression had long since changed. Seeing that Luo Nan was heading inside, his original intent was to grab him. However, he hesitated when his arm reached out half way. He did not stop Luo Nan. Instead, he caught up to him with large strides.