"How, how is this possible?"
Guo's eyes widened, and at this moment, even his wounds seemed to stop hurting.
So many shops were scared into closing down, and then carefully sent out "protection fees"... Is this all it is?
An endless confusion welled up in his heart. Guo suddenly felt like he had been tricked, and the other two law enforcement officers felt the same way. They stood there like two dried-up sculptures.
"Zuo Tong, Guo Nan," Han Meng's cold gaze swept over the two, "Is this what you call... extensive extortion of money?"
"This... shouldn't be happening??"
"Han Meng Commander, there must be some misunderstanding here..." Guo gritted his teeth and managed to squeeze out this sentence.
Guo's thoughts were completely in chaos... He couldn't understand why the shops on that street would make such a big fuss just to give Chen Yifei these things?
Who in their right mind would use so many beast hearts as protection fees?
Wouldn't they get heaty from eating all that?!
"But, he did attack someone first!" Guo changed the topic and painfully spoke again, "I didn't even say a word to him, and he stabbed me with a knife... He's just a madman!"
Han Meng turned to look at Chen Yifei, "What about you, anything you want to say?"
"He bullied the residents in my jurisdiction, I was just enforcing the law impartially and defending myself."
"You call this self-defense? I'm already..."
"I can prove that Officer Chen Yifei was indeed acting in self-defense," the elderly man who had spoken up earlier immediately said.
"I can also prove it."
"I can too..."
More and more people testified for Chen Yifei. Han Meng glanced coldly at Guo, who was about to argue something but ultimately didn't speak... He just glared at Chen Yifei with resentment.
Chen Yifei didn't care about Guo's gaze. To him, it was no different than a dung beetle passing by on the street glaring at him.
At this moment, Han Meng took out a document from his chest and handed it to Chen Yifei.
"What is this?" Chen Yifei asked.
"Your appointment letter," Han Meng's voice sounded calmly, "Originally, I was preparing to go directly to your place to give it to you... but I heard you were here, so I came by;
The Aurora City has appointed you as the law enforcement officer of District Three. From today onwards, you will be directly under my jurisdiction... At the same time, you have the authority to manage all law enforcement officers in District Three."
Everyone was stunned.
The resentment in Guo's eyes first turned into shock, then disbelief... When he saw Chen Yifei expressionlessly receive the appointment letter, his face was left only with a blank expression.
In his mind, he immediately recalled the terrifying speed and strength when Chen Yifei kicked him away, and his face turned extremely ugly.
He just offended Chen Yifei, and the other party was promoted to a law enforcement officer??
Besides Han Meng, no one knew that Chen Yifei had embarked on the Path of the War God, and he himself had no intention of promoting it. If it were previous law enforcement officers who had embarked on the Path of the War God, they would have returned and couldn't help but boast about it and recruit followers.
Chen Yifei glanced at the appointment letter and turned to ask Han Meng, "Where are my clothes?"
"It's the same type of windbreaker as what you're wearing... The law enforcement officer's uniform is too ugly."
"..." Han Meng looked at him strangely and turned to walk out, "Come with me to get it."
As Chen Yifei and Han Meng walked away together, the marketplace fell into silence again. Guo stared blankly at Chen Yifei's departing back, and his heart sank to the bottom...
...
"A clichéd plot," Chen Yifei sighed.
"What?"
"...Nothing, just a random thought."
Chen Yifei glanced at the audience expectation value on the snowy ground beside him. Since entering the marketplace, it had only increased by 9% in total... 7% of which was gained in an instant when the bag was opened, and the remaining 2% was when the appointment letter was given later.
If Chen Yifei had known about this episode ahead of time, he was confident that he could manipulate it to double the audience expectation value. Unfortunately, everything came too suddenly... But it was quite nice to have the expectation value come to him on the street.
It would be great if there were more people like Guo Nan.
"You knew that there was a phenomenon of collecting protection fees among law enforcement officers, why didn't you do anything about it?" Chen Yifei asked the question that had been in his mind for a long time.
"Do something? How?" Han Meng shook his head, "When I was promoted to a law enforcement officer, I also tried to solve this problem, but it was simply not feasible..."
"Even if the command clauses are set in place, it won't work?"
"You don't understand. The source of all this is not the law enforcement officers but the residents themselves," Han Meng said slowly, "The people here have been enslaved for too long. Over the past hundred years, they have relied on paying money to obtain the protection of law enforcement officers and conduct their businesses safely... Their parents, their grandparents, all went through this.
Even if you tell them that they don't have to pay anymore from now on, they will instead feel uneasy. It's not easy to change the imprisoned thoughts of a generation and eliminate their inner weakness and inferiority..."
Chen Yifei was silent for a long time, recalling the situation on the day he became a law enforcement officer, and nodded slightly.
Chen Yifei followed Han Meng to the headquarters of the law enforcement officers in District Three. The latter retrieved a windbreaker with a silver pattern from a cabinet and neatly placed it on the table.
"This is for you."
Chen Yifei put on the black windbreaker, and the size was just right. He looked at himself in the mirror, and his temperament had become much more composed...
"The classification of law enforcement officers is determined by the pattern on the hem of the windbreaker. The strength level you have corresponds to the number of patterns on your windbreaker. You must report to the Aurora City after each promotion, and they will send you the corresponding patterned clothes immediately."
"What is the highest pattern count for a law enforcement officer in the Aurora Territory now?" Chen Yifei asked.
"Eight patterns, and there are only two of them."
"So few?"
"Do you think it's easy to become an eight-pattern law enforcement officer?" Han Meng glanced at him, "In the entire human world, there aren't many eight-pattern strong individuals. Each of them can destroy the entire District Three with a single hand...
Those two eight-pattern law enforcement officers are already century-old strong individuals in the Aurora Territory."
"Isn't there a single nine-pattern law enforcement officer in the Aurora Territory?"
"There is no nine-pattern law enforcement officer."
Han Meng paused for a moment, "However, there is a ninth-stage individual..."
Chen Yifei was startled and then understood what Han Meng meant... There was a ninth-stage individual in the Aurora City, but that person was not part of the law enforcement officer system.
"Isn't he on the Path of the War God?" Chen Yifei asked tentatively.
"No, that person does not belong to any divine path..."
"Not belonging to any divine path?" Chen Yifei asked, puzzled, "Can one advance to the ninth stage without a divine path? How did he do it?"
"That person's situation is very complex... You just need to know that he does not belong to any path but possesses extremely powerful authority. Even the Aurora Territory we are in exists because of him."
Upon hearing the last sentence, shock appeared in Chen Yifei's eyes.
A territory exists because of one person?
"Who is he?"
Han Meng paused for a moment and slowly said a name:
"The Aurora Lord."