booktalesy Chapter 190 Top-Tier Investigator and Merit Rewards
Chapter 190 Top-Tier Investigator and Merit Rewards
Chapter 190 Top-Tier Investigator and Merit Rewards
Although Li Jiuhe didn't say it explicitly, his ability to define tasks was terrifying in the eyes of Tong Cheng and the others.
Previously, when these people were fighting the old man with the divination form in the hospital, they all heard the old man say something about "mission reset".
They speculated that this was a kind of ability that Li Jiuhe possessed, similar to resetting a certain state, but since it involved Li Jiuhe's core sequence ability, the person involved did not disclose it, and they did not inquire.
Now I just heard Li Jiuhe say that he has already stuck that lichen-patterned knife into Guan Sanye's head, in order to make it difficult for the Guan family to investigate.
Now, in the blink of an eye, this guy has pulled out an identical quinoa-patterned knife.
This shows that Li Jiuhe has many more abilities that they are unaware of.
However, just like the ability to "reset tasks," since Li Jiuhe didn't say anything, none of them felt comfortable asking further.
In fact, besides Mu Nian and Tong Cheng, Luo Shuo and Ma Li were also in a state of deep shock at this moment.
Because Li Jiuhe's strength breakthrough was too rapid, in just a few days, he had already risen to the level of a chief special investigator like Tong Cheng and Mu Nian.
Both of them were stunned.
Tong Cheng took the quinoa-patterned knife from Li Jiuhe, carefully put it away, and told him to wait for further instructions.
For safety reasons, Li Jiuhe will not return to headquarters for the next few days, but will stay in the safe house.
On the other hand, with Mu Nian's help, Luo Shuo used his abilities to try to find out as much information as possible about the Guan and Guo families, to see how these families reacted, and whether they had any information about Li Jiuhe.
Meanwhile, the replicated quinoa-patterned knife will be secretly handed over by Tong Cheng to Minister Shao Gang, awaiting delivery to the Equipment R&D Center for secret research.
The whole thing will be kept secret, since it's a huge boon for the Bureau of Investigation's development.
It's conceivable that even if the Guan family discovers that Guan Sanye's death is related to Li Jiuhe, given Li Jiuhe's contributions and current strength, the General Administration might still do everything in its power to protect him.
That's enough.
For the next few days, Li Jiuhe and Li Yi stayed in the safe house, enjoying their time together.
Luo Shuo would call from time to time, but out of caution, he did not come to visit.
Meanwhile, Ma Li stayed by the father and daughter's side the whole time. Although there was no shortage of pre-made food in the safe house, she also learned some cooking skills on the spot and made some food for the father and daughter in a haphazard way.
Although Ma Li's food was hard to swallow, Li Yi was very sensible and would always finish it and give it high praise.
Ma Li was overjoyed and greatly encouraged, and her cooking skills improved day by day.
Of course, during this time, Li Jiuhe had been trying to run simple tasks, such as "survive", "sneak with his daughter without being discovered by Ma Li", and "enter and leave the safe house without making a sound".
Some tasks were too simple to be defined by his abilities.
Ordinary tasks often do not offer any rewards.
Therefore, he could only increase the difficulty of his tasks as much as possible, as long as the task could be completed, he didn't care about the reward.
Li Jiuhe knew very well that he would still accumulate some upgrade experience every time he completed such an extremely simple task.
Under the current conditions and circumstances, this is sufficient.
Ten days later, at night.
He discovered that his upgrade progress had slowly increased to 96%, which meant that even performing simple tasks could generate effective experience, just at a slower pace.
Luo Shuo called during the day, saying that he and Tong Cheng would come to the safe house that evening and bring them good news.
When Ma Li heard this, she was very happy and told them to skip dinner and come over to eat with her. She prepared a lot of food that day.
After the two arrived, Tong Cheng seemed to be in a good mood, his usual seriousness replaced by a faint smile.
He tossed the two investigator badges onto the table: "Here, your matter is resolved. Mali, congratulations. If we exclude sequence items, you are our Bureau's first non-human investigator."
Ma Li immediately cried out happily, and the black ant larvae under her skirt rushed out in a swarm, running wildly in circles on the ground, forming a black stream.
Then, Ma Li picked up one of the documents on the table, opened it, and found that the document was black with a gold border.
She glanced at the text above and exclaimed in surprise, "Boss Tong, isn't this a bit inappropriate? I'm a top-level investigator as soon as I join the Investigation Bureau; I'm afraid this will attract criticism!"
"You're overthinking it." Tong Cheng laughed. "You've got the wrong one. This is the latest ID issued by Jiuhe. This is the one you have."
"oh."
Ma Li wasn't embarrassed at all. She casually handed the ID to Li Jiuhe, picked up another ID, and walked aside to look at it with a smug look.
Her credentials, like Luo Shuo's, belong to ordinary investigators.
"I changed my ID?" Li Jiuhe looked at the ID in his hand in astonishment.
He noticed that the ID card had turned black, just like the one Tong Cheng had, and it not only had gold trim, but three thick gold stripes.
Li Jiuhe understood the meaning of the black badge; it represented a top-level investigator.
However, Tong Cheng's ID card back then only had two thick gold borders.
Thinking of this, Tong Cheng took out his own ID and threw it on the table, saying, "Mine has been changed too. I wasn't the chief before, but I am now, and you, me, and Mu Nian are the same."
Luo Shuo smiled and nodded, saying, "Brother Li, that means you not only became a top-level investigator, but also one of the three top-level investigators along with Boss Tong and Mu Nian."
Then Tong Cheng took out a check, slammed it on the table, and pushed it in front of Li Jiuhe.
"This time you provided the General Administration with a more detailed sequence pattern. The information was so advanced, dense, and valuable that it has already received Professor Gu's personal approval. Therefore, Minister Shao directly informed the higher-ups at the General Administration, resulting in not only a promotion for you but also more merit points. Here, this is the merit reward for this achievement. Because it involves confidentiality, it wasn't processed through an account; it was issued as an anonymous check."
At this point, Tong Cheng sighed with emotion, "Jiuhe, you don't know, although the higher-ups in the General Administration sometimes have to yield to the power of their families, they also want a chance to turn the tables. The information you provided gave them an excellent opportunity, and coupled with your strength being recommended by both Mu Nian and me, the higher-ups immediately decided to reward you, upgrade you, and do everything they could to ensure your safety."
Luo Shuo nodded excitedly and continued, "Brother Li, you don't have to worry about the Guan family coming after you now. The Director of the General Administration has personally spoken up and will definitely protect you."
Tong Cheng then took out another letter and handed it to Li Jiuhe: "This was written to you personally by the bureau chief. I have to deliver it to you. But the contents are nothing more than some official language. You just need to understand the general meaning. Besides, only the higher-ups know about your matter; it won't be leaked."
This was the day Tong Cheng spoke the most since they started spending time together, and it was clear that Tong Cheng was genuinely happy.
After all, Li Jiuhe was someone he had personally trained from the local investigation bureau, and now he had been promoted to a special-grade investigator, one of the top three.
This glory is almost identical to the sense of accomplishment he felt when his teacher, Xu Huaiyuan, mentored him.
Most importantly, Li Jiuhe is a member of the Purple Gold Rank, a unique position among top-level investigators. His future prospects are limitless, and no one can compare to him at present.
Li Jiuhe glanced at the number on the check; it was quite a lot. It was clear that the General Administration had indeed treated him as one of their own this time.
As Tong Cheng said, the complete basic sequence diagram was one reason, and another reason was his significant improvement in strength.
However, Li Jiuhe guessed that there was another deeper reason behind this, which was that both Tong Cheng and Shao Gang were on his side and speaking up for him.
With the addition of Mu Nian, who was originally the chief special investigator, the combined power of the three of them within the Bureau was not something that the higher-ups could ignore.
Now he was essentially tied to the three of them; to put it bluntly, he had become one of the factions within the General Administration.
However, this matter was generally positive for him. Not only did his status and strength improve and he received a large reward, but he also gained the backing of the Special Events Investigation Bureau of Tian Shu Kingdom.
Even though the Investigation Bureau is slightly weaker than those families in terms of overall strength, it has become Li Jiuhe's biggest "shield".
Looking at the Special Investigator pass with three gold stripes, Li Jiuhe withdrew his gaze and said sincerely, "Thank you, Brother Tong and Minister Shao. Without your help and Mu Nian's help, I wouldn't have gotten this far."
Tong Cheng smiled and waved his hand. By this point, he had completely regarded Li Jiuhe as one of his own, and there was no longer any distance between them.
"There's something else I need to tell you. To clear up any suspicions about you, the bureau has decided that you won't be going back for the time being. Instead, you'll be going abroad on some missions. Once things have calmed down here and the Guan and Guo families have stopped making any moves, you can come back."
"Go abroad?" Li Jiuhe frowned slightly.
Tong Cheng nodded: "Don't overthink it. I thought about it all night yesterday, and I feel that this is the only way to protect you and your daughter to the greatest extent. We will erase all traces of you during this time and create the illusion that you have been training and investigating cases abroad. You and Li Yi will go there together. There is a special school for awakened people there, which is jointly run by our Tian Shu Kingdom and them. She can study there."
"Where exactly are we going?"
"Dan City in the Kingdom of Liuli. The Kingdom of Liuli is five times the size of my Kingdom of Tian Shu, which is enough for you to make your move. There is also an office we have set up there, which is mainly responsible for joint training, cross-border case handling, and exchanging case information."
"Boss Tong, what about me?" Ma Li asked hurriedly upon seeing this.
Tong Cheng didn't answer, but turned to look at Li Jiuhe: "Your current status allows you to form your own team. Do you want Ma Li? If needed, she can go to Liuli Kingdom with you. You already have a working relationship, so she should be fine with assisting and cooperating with you."
Seeing that Li Jiuhe didn't speak, Ma Li immediately looked at him with hopeful eyes.
To be honest, she had gotten used to being with Li Jiuhe and didn't want to stay at headquarters and face Tong Cheng and the others.
Although she got along well with Luo Shuo, she got along best with Li Jiuhe.
Besides, she herself has always wanted to travel around, see the world, find the truth of the sequence, and see the perfect sequence diagram she imagined.
Li Jiuhe asked Ma Li, "After you go abroad, you might not be able to return to China for a while. Are you willing to do that?"
Ma Li immediately nodded like a chick pecking at rice: "Yes, of course I'm willing."
"Boss, I—" Luo Shuo suddenly spoke up.
However, before he could finish speaking, Tong Cheng shook his head: "You can't. Even if Jiu He agrees, I won't let you go."
There are still many cases here that require your abilities, and besides, your offensive capabilities are too weak. I need to figure out how to improve your abilities in this area, whether it's by pairing you with an offensive sequence item or some other method, to make up for this weakness.
"Oh." Since Tong Cheng had already said so much, Luo Shuo immediately stopped talking.
After all, he was doing it for his own good. Although Li Jiuhe's strength had increased, Tong Cheng still far surpassed him in terms of practical experience.
With Tong Cheng tailoring a project for Luo Shuo to address his shortcomings, Luo Shuo knew there was no better opportunity than this.
Speaking of sequence items, the Azure Lotus Child played a significant role in Li Jiuhe's case last time.
After Li Jiuhe returned to the capital, he returned the Green Lotus Boy to Mu Nian and sincerely thanked him.
This item always belonged to Mu Nian and must be returned to its rightful owner.
However, having the Azure Lotus Boy by his side does indeed save Li Jiuhe a lot of trouble, as he doesn't have to worry too much about being tracked or questioned at crucial moments.
The reason for returning Qinglian Boy was that Luo Shuo discovered he could no longer track Li Jiuhe's whereabouts.
Because of his perfect integration with the morning bell of the second day of the seventh month, Luo Shuo's pursuit of Li Jiuhe yielded only an "empty" result.
This is a very strange situation, but after learning the reason for the Morning Bell, Li Jiuhe suspects that it may be because he can enter the Morning Bell space, so he can reach a state of "emptiness" at any time.
After all, the morning bell's influence on him was ubiquitous.
Previously, the Morning Bell could remain invisible at any time. Unless it wanted to reveal itself, it would be impossible for Chen Zhenghai and his group to detect it even if it hovered above their heads.
Last time, Chen Zhong was forced to leave Li Jiuhe, but because it cared about Li Jiuhe's plight, it kept appearing and disappearing, following Li Jiuhe's whereabouts.
Concern leads to confusion, and it was precisely for this reason that the Morning Bell of the Second Seventh was unintentionally discovered by the powerful divination body of Lord Guan, and subsequently controlled.
Actually, Tong Cheng wasn't entirely confident in Ma Li's abilities. There was another reason why he agreed to let Ma Li and Li Jiuhe be together: sometimes Ma Li could take care of Li Yi.
Li Yi can also, in turn, restrain some of Ma Li's behaviors.
After all, besides being afraid of birds, Ma Li is also afraid of ghosts, and Li Yi happens to be able to control these "ghosts".
After dinner that day, everyone chatted for a while longer, until late at night.
The next day, Tong Cheng arrived at headquarters and quickly completed the procedures for Li Jiuhe and the other two to travel to Liuli Kingdom.
They travel in private jets. The General Administration sometimes borrows planes from wealthy individuals or other organizations to carry out covert official business.
The plane did not belong to a wealthy man from Tian Shu Kingdom, but to a businessman from Liu Li Kingdom. This businessman frequently traveled between Tian Shu and Liu Li Kingdoms, and this time he was just giving them a ride back.
However, an isolation pod was set up on the plane in advance. Li Jiuhe and the others would be arranged in the isolation pod at the rear of the plane, and they would not meet the tycoon until they reached their destination, Liuli Kingdom.
Because Tong Cheng also told Li Jiuhe and the others that they needed to escort an evil sequence item back to the Liuli Kingdom.
This sequence item was captured by the Kingdom of Liuli at the request of the Kingdom of Tianshu, in exchange for another evil sequence item that the Kingdom of Tianshu was also trying to capture.
The serial item has now been delivered to the Tian Shu Kingdom, but due to various reasons, the Tian Shu Kingdom dealt with the remaining issues of the serial item before sending it back to the Liu Li Kingdom.
They had originally planned to have a senior investigator escort them, but since Li Jiuhe was going to Liuli Kingdom, they handed the job over to him.
After all, Li Jiuhe is now a Special Grade investigator, one of the top Special Grade investigators. No one is more suitable than him to escort this sequence item.
Of course, in addition to sending the sequence item, Li Jiuhe also received an appointment notice.
As a special investigator, I assisted the Foreign Affairs Office and the Investigation Bureau of the Kingdom of Liuli in handling some special cases.
Originally, Li Jiuhe planned to return to Wangchuan City to thoroughly investigate the mystery of his identity.
Examine why your information was incorrect during the period before Lin Fengya's car accident, and whether your perception had truly been altered.
But it's not the right time yet; we can't disregard Li Yi's safety in order to investigate this matter.
After confirming the departure date from Tian Shu Kingdom, Luo Shuo purchased some necessities for them, while more daily necessities would be taken care of after arriving in Dan City of Liuli Kingdom.
After dinner, Li Jiuhe called over Ma Li, who had washed the dishes, and asked her and Li Yi to come outside for a walk with him.
Ma Li asked in surprise, "Are we just going to go out like this? Won't we be exposed?"
Li Jiuhe asked with a smile, "What are you revealing?"
He is now extremely good at hiding, even Luo Shuo can't track him down, let alone the Guan and Guo families who don't know his identity yet.
Staying in the safe house is just for double insurance.
"Then what are we going to do outside?" Ma Li asked back.
Li Jiuhe said, "Let's resolve a problem that has been bothering us for a long time. This way, we can travel with a lighter load and head to the Liuli Kingdom with peace of mind."
Ma Li looked at him suspiciously, but didn't say anything.
Li Yi climbed onto the sofa, wrapped her arms around Li Jiuhe's neck, and asked, "Daddy, where are we going? To the toy store or the chocolate store?"
"Go ahead," Li Jiuhe replied with a smile.
These past few days, Li Yi has been staying indoors with him, but the little guy has been jumping around and wants to go out for a stroll.
She was thinking that it would be best to buy a cup of milk tea, eat a few fried chicken legs, buy a few dolls, and then bring back some chocolate.
"However," Li Jiuhe changed the subject, "before doing these things, let's go see a movie first, then go to a dance hall, preferably a crowded, dimly lit place."
Ma Li was surprised: "Brother Li, so you like this kind of thing! I didn't know you were hiding it so well. But Yiyi can't go to places like that. If you want to go, I'll go with you!"