Chapter 99: Blending In

“My current test subject is an elderly man, who appears to be over sixty years old.”

“He reacted to my movements close by.”

Lu Xin spoke softly: “Now, I’ll try to trip him up and observe the reaction.”

As he said this, his hand pressed down on the old man’s shoulder while his leg swept behind the man’s legs. The elderly man instantly fell. Since many people were nearby, his fall immediately jostled the two people behind him. Those two stepped back, bumping into several others. A small ripple of disturbance, like a splash of water, spread through that section of the crowd before settling back into silence.

Those who had been jostled turned their stiff, unyielding eyes towards Lu Xin.

“Good.”

Lu Xin murmured: “Now they’re all looking at me. Test results are ideal…”

Han Bing, listening over the channel, glimpsed this eerie scene through the video feed.

She was silent for quite some time before managing to say: “Okay.”

…

“What’s he doing?”

Gecko, watching from atop the High Wall, had seen Lu Xin stroll around casually after descending. First, the young man waved a hand in front of an elderly man, observing him closely. Then, he actually tripped the old man, causing him to fall. Gecko stared wide-eyed in shock:

“Is this an investigation, or is he testing how far he can push the old man before the old man slaps him?”

Over the channel, Tie Cui’s voice was icy: “Shut up, or you go down!”

Gecko insisted righteously: “Special operations personnel have the right to request a temporary withdrawal when facing unknown dangers. As a fellow Ability User, I also have a responsibility to exercise that withdrawal right on his behalf if I sense he’s in peril…”

“…”

Tie Cui responded: “But you shouldn’t be cracking jokes while others are conducting deep investigations.”

Gecko lowered his head thoughtfully for a moment then said: “Alright, truth is, I’m nervous. I talk when I’m nervous…”

Tie Cui clearly knew this habit of his and simply fell silent, not pressing the issue further.

…

Meanwhile, below the High Wall, Lu Xin meticulously examined the elderly man. He found nothing amiss. There were no visible signs of a Psychic Entity on him, no unusual injuries, and his body even seemed quite robust.

The elderly man didn’t seem to hold any grudge against Lu Xin for tripping him.

After pondering for a moment, Lu Xin slowly nudged the elderly man to one side and took up the position the old man had occupied.

Then he looked up, silently gazing at the High Wall.

After a long silence, Han Bing’s voice finally came through the channel, inquiring hesitantly: “What are you doing?”

Though Lu Xin was the one in the field, she seemed more tense than him.

Lu Xin maintained his position, murmuring: “That elderly man had no other reaction besides looking at me. Just staring. I felt the only next experiment would be to eliminate him… but let’s postpone that elimination option. For now, I’m attempting to blend in with them.”

“…”

“Blend in?”

Han Bing thought she might have misheard, her tone tinged with disbelief.

Lu Xin spoke softly: “Since our detection methods and external observation haven’t revealed anything… doesn’t it seem logical to try feeling it by blending in?”

“…”

Han Bing was momentarily at a loss for a reply.

While Lu Xin’s statement sounded reasonable to her, she still felt compelled to explain properly:

“There are many reasons why we’ve been unable to locate the Source of Contamination through testing. It might be exceptionally well-hidden, or it could be utilizing a form of Special Contamination we haven’t yet discovered. If the Contamination affects only ordinary people, then indeed, it could create a situation where even Ability Users fail to detect it. Blending in with them might then prove useless.”

“…”

“So only ordinary people can sense it?”

Lu Xin answered quietly: “Then it should be worth a try.”

He thought back to his own experiences, particularly the abnormality he felt upon encountering the Drunkard earlier.

He added: “Actually, I’ve always considered myself an ordinary person.”

…

“‘Lone Soldier’ calls himself an ordinary person…”

Han Bing, on the other end of the channel, was silent again for quite a while, lost in thought.

Lu Xin, meanwhile, stood earnestly amidst the crowd. He stood still, silently facing the High Wall.

After he had stood for a while, the elderly man he had tripped earlier got back to his feet. Instead of trying to reclaim his former spot, he stood silently behind Lu Xin. Then he resumed looking up at the High Wall, tears soon welling up in his eyes again.

The eerie silence deepened. Standing among them now, Lu Xin seemed no different from the rest.

…

“So many people exhibiting identical responses indicates they are all subject to the same influence,” Lu Xin mentally noted, consciously pushing aside his own distracting thoughts. “A mysterious force must be affecting them, causing this behavior. Therefore, if examining affected individuals yields no clues about this force, the only option left is to try immersing myself among them. Feel that force directly. Persist until I discern how it affects these people…”

“Discovering how it affects them reveals the Logic Chain.”

“Finding where the influence originates exposes the Core Key.”

“…”

Having thought this through, Lu Xin stood even straighter. He cleared his mind of all extraneous thought and simply stared at the High Wall.

…

“What’s he doing?”

Standing perfectly still below the High Wall, immersed in focused sensing, Lu Xin appeared baffling to the Gecko watching from the wall.

“Could he feel our odds were too low, so he’s defected to their side?”

“…” Tie Cui’s voice crackled over the channel, thick with suppressed fury: “Shut up. Don’t interfere with your partner’s investigation work.”

“Investigation?”

Gecko paused before asking: “Honestly, what kind of investigation method is that? Is this standard training? I’ve never seen it.”

On the channel, Tie Cui remained silent.

Unable to contain himself, Gecko pressed: “Come on, tell us! He looks so professional. How much training did he have?”

Tie Cui, after her prolonged silence, finally broke it, her voice low: “I just reviewed his file. He is undergoing training on handling Special Contamination and psychic abilities. But the course is three months long, and he’s attended for less than a week.”

“In other words,” she continued, “judging solely by the special contamination handling curriculum we helped compile… beyond the initial sections covering the broad classification of Special Contamination Sources and the corresponding renumeration tiers… he hasn’t even started the rest…”

“…” Gecko was dumbfounded.

After a moment, he managed: “From what little I understand of him… perhaps that was enough…”

…