"I understand," Qi Yuan agreed. The difficulty of this task would depend on the reputation of the surgeon performing the operation for them.
If it proved too troublesome to investigate, he'd just pass the intelligence to Yin Qingran and let her look into it herself. After all, he couldn't be bothered to fly all the way to the Buddha Bit Country just for this.
With that settled, he set off for the Duty Headquarters.
Su Ke had sent him a message asking him to come to the headquarters.
At the entrance of the Duty Headquarters, he noticed a few middle school students playing nearby.
The Duty Headquarters was located in the center of Ji Capital, surrounded by numerous buildings, with schools within its radius of influence. It wasn't unusual to see students playing in the vicinity.
However, these middle schoolers were different from the usual passersby. They didn't seem intimidated by the imposing atmosphere of the Duty Headquarters and kept glancing towards the entrance, as if waiting for someone.
Qi Yuan only gave them a brief look before heading inside.
As soon as he knocked and entered, Yu Anhe gestured for him to sit on the sofa and wait for a moment.
Qi Yuan watched as Yu Anhe quickly scanned through the official document in his hands, signing it with a flourish.
Yu Anhe casually picked up a cup of chrysanthemum tea beside him and walked towards Qi Yuan, saying, "Do you have any important plans recently? You seemed a bit unsettled last time I saw you."
Qi Yuan watched him plop down on his left side with the cup and answered concisely, "No."
Although his workload was far less than that of the Nine Seats, his enormous monthly salary continued to be paid, making Qi Yuan feel somewhat indebted.
This was the laid-back work life he had dreamed of in high school.
Unfortunately, life is unpredictable...
With SSS-Level Monsters still lurking outside and his power not yet able to sweep away all threats, he couldn't rest easy.
"The Buddha Bit Country has requested our assistance in clearing out the monsters in New York City. Given that the alliance intention agreement among the Five Major Countries is in the process of being signed, and in the interest of expediting the clearing plan, I'm inclined towards cooperation. If you don't have any urgent matters to attend to, I'd appreciate it if you could make a trip to the Buddha Bit Country."
The last time Yu Anhe had called Qi Yuan to a meeting was to familiarize him with their work procedures.
Now that they had established an initial relationship of trust and cooperation, there was no need to bother Qi Yuan with unnecessary trivial matters.
"Alright, what's the situation over there?" Qi Yuan agreed immediately. He wasn't interested in the details of the cooperation, knowing that Yu Anhe wouldn't let Dragon Country be taken advantage of. His focus was on the monsters in New York City.
"The slum areas have all fallen, and the police stations and superpowered protected zones have been pushed back to the city center. It's only a matter of time before they're infected by the monsters too."
"The Buddha Bit Country got lucky this time. A large connected area appeared in the slums. If they had noticed any later, it probably would have been unsalvageable."
"How did they discover it?" Qi Yuan noticed that Yu Anhe had used the term "lucky," suggesting that the discovery was rather accidental.
Yu Anhe let out a long sigh, "A journalist found out that the homeless informant he had arranged to meet didn't show up, so he went to the police station to report it..."
Under normal circumstances, the police wouldn't handle cases of missing homeless people, and even if they did, it wouldn't be a high priority.
This journalist seemed to have pulled some strings, as the police station immediately dispatched personnel to investigate the case.
Initially, their attitude was casual, planning to just wander around, collect some evidence, and leave. But when they tried to gather evidence near the construction site where the homeless man often slept, they were obstructed by local residents.
This behavior was tantamount to challenging the authority of the police station. The investigating officers immediately clashed with the residents, drawing their guns and firing warning shots.
However, at that moment, they didn't realize that these gunshots had rung their own death knell.
The disappearance of investigating officers was not the same as that of a homeless person. Their disappearance immediately caught the attention of the police station, which dispatched a large number of armed personnel to search.
What they thought would be a sure thing ended in failure.
The police chief immediately realized that monsters or ability users must be involved and hurriedly sought help from the Association of Superpower Users.
Logically, at this point, the matter should have been thoroughly investigated.
But considering the national conditions of the Buddha Bit Country, unlike countries within Dragon Country's sphere of ideological influence that emphasize teamwork, they favor individual heroism.
They either act alone or in small groups of friends.
Unfortunately, while the Association of Superpower Users deemed this case to be of low social concern and didn't give it much attention, the person who took on the task chose to act alone.
And so, this ability user also disappeared.
The disappearance of an ability user finally stirred up social opinion, and the Association of Superpower Users held an emergency press conference, stating they would thoroughly investigate the matter.
At this point, the Association of Superpower Users still hadn't realized the severity of the situation. They were solely focused on the fact that their authority had been challenged.
From the initial investigation to the press conference, they had given the perpetrators ample time to react.
On the day of the press conference, a certain cult organization directly upended everything, spreading like a virus throughout New York City, forcing more people to join the cult through some kind of ritual.
Terrorist organizations lurking in and around New York City, as well as followers of some small cults, seized the opportunity to join the fray, further muddying the already turbid waters.
This led the New York City leadership to make an erroneous judgment, believing it to be a large-scale terrorist attack orchestrated by multiple terrorist organizations. They responded with heavy-handed measures to suppress these troublemakers.
By the time they finally realized that some of the cult members and terrorists were people who had been forced to join the cult earlier, the situation had already developed beyond the point of no return.
Left with no choice, they abandoned the protection of civilians, contracted their defensive perimeter, and the upper class, the wealthy, and ability users were besieged in the city center.
After hearing the whole story, Qi Yuan didn't know how to comment.
He noticed that one person had been absent from the entire narrative, "What about Johnson?"
"Him..." Yu Anhe, having spoken at length, took a big gulp of tea from his cup, smacked his lips, and said, "At first, I guess no one looked for him, and later... the Buddha Bit Country side didn't go into details, only saying that he's desperately holding the last line of defense in the city center."
Understood...
Qi Yuan immediately grasped the situation. It was just those higher-ups fearing for their own safety, forcibly keeping Johnson to protect them.
If Johnson went out to fight that monster and lost, they would all die. But if he stayed to protect them, with Smith returning and support arriving, they had an eight or nine out of ten chance of survival.
Although New York City wasn't the capital, as the most prosperous city in the Buddha Bit Country, all of its higher-ups were connected to the country's leadership by blood or marriage.
"In any case, we're just providing assistance and support. You must act within your capabilities," Yu Anhe rambled on with his instructions. Although he was confident in Qi Yuan's abilities, he worried that Qi Yuan might get carried away and make a mistake.
"Whatever you do, don't act impulsively. Think of your family. Your uncle hasn't woken up yet, and our Dragon Country is still counting on you. If their reactions aren't interesting enough, you can always find Hong Feiheng to amuse yourself later. Your uncle here won't say a word against it."