Wasteland Border Inspector - Chapter 893

Chapter 893: Chapter 288: Praise of Life, the Primal Seed of the Extraordinary!

“Could this be Chief Cheng’s superpower?” Wu Rui pondered, waved the onlooking team members away, and stayed by the pit himself, watching the surroundings warily.

In just an hour and a half, Cheng Ye suddenly opened his eyes. The soil wrapped around his whole body made him freeze for a second, and the next, an unprecedented surge of energy flooded through him.

The exhaustion from a sleepless night vanished without a trace, as if he had enjoyed a full night’s deep sleep; even his mind felt razor-sharp.

What delighted him even more was that he could clearly feel a noticeable increase in his total Life Force.

“Is this the effect of the Life Blessing?”

Stunned, Cheng Ye pulled up his panel, only to see that the blessing’s description had silently updated. The permanent total Life Force bonus entry was now clearly showing: current bonus: 3%.

“Just 3% can have such a pronounced effect?” Cheng Ye was taken aback for a moment, then immediately realized how terrifying this blessing was.

This total bonus—was it not based on his current base stats, but on the total after stacking the Shrinking Earth Giant Louse Coexistence State?

If that’s the case, wouldn’t it mean…

He immediately looked at the attribute panel for the Shrinking Earth Giant Louse Coexistence State.

Sure enough, the numbers had changed. Each activation of the Coexistence State still cost 5% Life Force, but the repayment distance had dropped from 50 kilometers to 49; more importantly, the Life Force extraction ratio for sharing attributes had fallen from 350% to 345%.

“So increasing my Life Force can actually reduce the cost of using the shrinking giant lice?”

Reaching this conclusion, Cheng Ye felt both enlightened and a little surprised.

Enlightened, because the Collector had already hinted that the high cost per use was due to the huge gap between their Life tiers. Now that the Life tier gap had narrowed, the price naturally dropped.

Surprised, because it seemed he really was going to walk the “Blood Bull Warrior” path all the way to the end.

And on top of the usual physique-talent bonuses, he had now found a new way to increase Life Force.

Blessings from Extraordinary Creatures!

“I wonder what will happen after fusing Matthew Lee’s Praise of Tenacity?”

With a flicker of thought, Cheng Ye simply decided to do it today.

Anyway, the hydropower station was supplying electricity non-stop, the charging value could be replenished as he used it, and no one could restrict him.

“Chief Cheng, are you all right?” Wu Rui’s voice came, not surprised, but tinged with curiosity.

Cheng Ye turned his head, glanced at him, and smiled. “I’m fine, I feel great. It’s really comfortable staying in the dirt.”

“Is that your superpower?”

“Mm… you could say that, I guess, though I can’t really explain it clearly.”

“Not being able to explain it is normal.” Wu Rui chuckled. “In a Wasteland this big, hardly anyone can fully understand their own talent. If you want to come out, just say the word anytime.”

“Okay, then help me grab my Defense Communication.”

Cheng Ye nodded. He could clearly feel that while he was buried in the soil, the effect of the Praise of Life was still ongoing.

It seemed to be slowly absorbing the faint vitality in the soil; the Life Force bonus on the panel was ticking upward bit by bit.

He stayed there until noon. After another three and a half hours, the charging value was full again.

Cheng Ye had the militiamen dig open the pit. When he jumped out, the Life Force bonus on his panel had already broken through to 12%.

At the same time, the repayment distance for the shrinking giant lice had dropped from 49 kilometers to 46, and the extraction ratio for sharing attributes had fallen even more sharply, plummeting straight to 312%.

“Nice. Once this 25% is fully absorbed, I’ll probably only need to pay the price of three lives to use the contribution attributes!”

Cheng Ye was secretly overjoyed as he patted the dirt off his body and put his clothes back on.

“Let’s go, to Dongping Town!”

He retracted the pendant with the charging port. The off-road vehicle had been borrowed, but the two armed pickups were still there.

They sped along the road, and in just forty minutes arrived at Dongping Town, where he smoothly harvested the toughness blessing of the fir-tree line from Matthew Lee!

“What are you grinning at?” Matthew Lee was already used to Cheng Ye’s sudden visits.

But seeing him leaning against the car door, grinning from ear to ear, he couldn’t help scratching his head.

“Do you have any close relatives?” Cheng Ye got straight to the point.

“Of course, quite a few actually, and they’re living pretty comfortably.”

Matthew Lee said matter-of-factly, “It’s just that they all stayed in Firewood. Back then, the only ones willing to migrate to Happiness City were my father’s branch of the family.”

“So they’re in Firewood?” Cheng Ye felt a bit disappointed, then asked, “Did they inherit your grandfather’s Extraordinary Talent?”

“Uh… I’m not too sure about that, but they should have… inherited it, right?”

Matthew Lee said hesitantly, “Otherwise, in a place like Firewood, they wouldn’t be able to live so smoothly.”

They had relatives, they were in Firewood, and there was a high probability they had inherited the fir-tree-line talent!

Cheng Ye silently memorized this key piece of information.

Looked like if he ever had the chance to go to Firewood Shelter City, he might be able to collect the remaining blessings. Even if he couldn’t synthesize a complete Moyu Fir Tree, getting a seed of an original plant would still be a huge win.

But just as Matthew Lee was puzzling over it, intending to ask why he was suddenly inquiring about these things, the Defense Communication at Cheng Ye’s waist suddenly vibrated.

He pulled out the Defense Communication, and when he saw the official number displayed on the screen, he frowned. “Huh, this is a checkpoint office number? Which office?”

Matthew Lee leaned over for a look, then immediately raised his brows. “That’s the dedicated number for Station Chief Ding’s office.”

“Station Chief Ding’s?”

Cheng Ye blinked, quickly reined in his expression, and pressed the answer button.

Matthew Lee, very tactfully, was about to step aside, but Cheng Ye signaled with his eyes for him to stay where he was.

“Cheng Ye?” As expected, Ding Yishan’s voice came through the receiver. His tone was level, but faintly carried a trace of barely concealed delight, lacking his usual stern rigidity.

“Station Chief Ding!” Cheng Ye replied in a deep voice.

“You’re in Dapo Town?”

“Oh, I’m in Dongping Town right now, exchanging some insights on Satellite City construction with Inspector Matthew Lee.”

“Heh… exchanging construction insights with Matthew Lee, huh?” Ding Yishan let out a soft chuckle. Hearing that laugh made Matthew Lee immediately frown, baring his teeth in a face full of indignation.

What, is Inspector Li not competent enough? Isn’t Dongping Town developing with great fanfare?

But Ding Yishan clearly had no intention of explaining. He shifted the topic. “Get ready and come back to the Buffer Zone as soon as possible.”

“Oh?” Cheng Ye’s heart skipped. “Is there something urgent?”

“Liu Bi just finished a mission and returned to the Buffer Zone yesterday. Today he clashed with the Security and Integrity Bureau. He beat Qin Zhaoye, the director of the Order Maintenance Department, into the emergency ward, and now he’s been detained by the Integrity Bureau.”

Ding Yishan’s voice was still calm. “I want you to represent the checkpoint and go to the Integrity Bureau to pay the fine and bail him out.”

“What?”

When he heard the name Liu Bi, Cheng Ye already had a vague sense of foreboding. Once Ding Yishan finished speaking, he couldn’t help blurting out.

Fuck, it was one thing for Brother B to beat Garcia into the emergency room, but how did he manage to send Qin Zhaoye there too?

Wait…

He realized that Ding Yishan’s tone wasn’t stern at all, but instead carried a hint of lightness and even joy.

Cheng Ye narrowed his eyes and unconsciously rubbed his chin with his free left hand. “Station Chief, has Inspector Liu already reported to you?”

“Of course. Once an Inspector finishes a mission, he naturally has to report to me as the Station Chief. Why?”

This old fox!

He even had the nerve to ask “why”!

At this moment, Cheng Ye was ninety-nine percent sure that all of this had absolutely been done at Ding Yishan’s behest.

After all, compared to the other Prosecutors at the station, Liu Bi had always been clean and incorruptible. The Integrity Bureau simply had no handle on him. For it to be him who struck first made it least likely for people to suspect that the checkpoint was deliberately picking a fight.

And the Integrity Bureau couldn’t leverage this to pin anything on Liu Bi either; they could only hold him on the charge of causing injury.

What Cheng Ye hadn’t expected was that the conflict between the checkpoint and the Security and Integrity Bureau had been initiated by the checkpoint—and with the first move, they’d sent the opponent’s director straight into the emergency room.

And picking a fight with a rising new bureau structure and the Extraordinary Faction behind it—there was no way Liu Bi didn’t understand the consequences.

Yet he still did it. What exactly had Ding Yishan said, what had he promised, to make him so completely committed?

“Station Chief…”

“The fine will be covered by the station; you don’t need to pay out of your own pocket.” Ding Yishan cut him off directly.

“That’s not what I meant…”

“Take him away to your Dapo Town. After next spring, I’ll smooth over the fallout from this matter.”

Ding Yishan’s voice remained indifferent. “Liu Bi will follow you on field missions. For the clearance level and specs of those field missions, you can ask for whatever you want. As long as the station can meet it, it will.”

“All right!”

…