From Apocalypse Boss to Farmer: My Vegetables Make Me Stronger!-Chapter 61 - 56: No. 176

Qi Xiang was still a bit dazed.

At the South City Restaurant, they had clearly been caught up in a disaster through no fault of their own and had been terrified for the better part of the day. She was starting to think that maybe, just maybe, her luck wasn’t all that great after all.

But Gu Xi knew perfectly well that this girl, Qi Xiang, had luck that was truly heaven-defying.

Otherwise, why would that person have run into their private room of all places? And with just one bump, managed to knock her Crystal Core Fragment onto Qi Xiang?

You have to understand, the moment a Crystal Core Fragment from a Divine Rank ability user appeared, it would inevitably set off a bloodbath, drawing countless high-rank ability users to fight over it.

After all, life in this apocalypse was hard. Who wouldn’t want to become an unparalleled powerhouse?

But now, this Crystal Core Fragment hadn’t even made its official debut before it fell into Qi Xiang’s hands in such a manner.

’Although, in the end, my own little Sprout swallowed it in one gulp...’

Gu Xi paused. ’Huh, now that I think about it, does that mean my little Sprout is the chosen one?’

The little green sprout immediately straightened the two tender leaves at its tip, doing its best to strike a proud, chest-out pose. ’That’s right! I’m the Chosen Sprout!’

Gu Xi: "..."

The next morning, the moment the three of them got home and stepped out of the vehicle, they were surrounded.

Seeing Gu Xi and the other two return safe and sound, Shen Yue and the Qin Family sisters all breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"What exactly happened?" Shen Yue asked.

Although he had received news last night, the information from his inside source was vague. To find out the specifics, he had to ask the three people involved.

Neither Wei Heng nor Qi Xiang spoke.

The matter was related to Gu Xi, so it wasn’t their place to speak.

Gu Xi thought for a moment, then said nonchalantly, "Someone took something of mine, then happened to run into Qi Xiang. By a strange twist of fate, the item ended up back in my hands."

As for the matter of the Crystal Core Fragment, it was too troublesome to explain. Besides, there were many aspects of the situation she hadn’t figured out herself, so Gu Xi kept it to herself.

But the more Shen Yue listened, the more something felt off.

The news he’d received was clearly that the Special Service Team had captured three dangerous criminals at the South City Restaurant. How did that turn into "someone took her things" when Gu Xi told it?

Clearly, there was more to the story.

Shen Yue had originally wanted to ask a few more questions, but seeing the exhausted looks on all three of their faces and remembering they had been bouncing around in a truck for over ten hours, he held back. He just urged them to hurry back and get some rest.

After leaving the Qin Family sisters to watch the house, Shen Yue thought for a moment, stuck a roasted sweet potato in his pocket, and headed over to the experimental fields.

The moment Yang Chi saw him, he put on a fawning grin. "Bro, I haven’t had breakfast yet."

Shen Yue shot him a look and casually tossed him the roasted sweet potato. "Have you found out the identities of those three wanted criminals?"

Yang Chi polished off the sweet potato in a few quick bites, wiped his mouth, and said, "Nope..."

"And you have the nerve to eat my sweet potato when you’ve got nothing?" Shen Yue scoffed.

"But," Yang Chi said, "I found out something even more interesting..."

Shen Yue raised an eyebrow at him.

Yang Chi said smugly, "The identities and origins of those three wanted criminals are a mystery; there’s no information on them for now. But the wanted poster was issued directly by the Abnormal Ability Research Institute."

He paused, glanced at his cousin, and then added meaningfully, "But the interesting thing is, didn’t our dear Mr. Zhou take Ye Junhan away a couple of days ago?

"So, for this operation, the Abnormal Ability Research Institute logically bypassed Ye Junhan and sent the order directly to a small Special Service Team that was already on a mission near the South City base, telling them to make the arrest..."

This was clearly against regulations.

"So Ye Junhan didn’t know about this?" Shen Yue frowned, getting straight to the point.

Yang Chi rubbed his chin. "He probably knows by now. Ye Junhan is no fool, and he’s not that easy to trick. This is going to cause a major stir later on."

Shen Yue’s usual laid-back expression vanished. He suddenly recalled what Gu Xi had just said...

Just then, Yang Chi suddenly said, "There’s something else that’s really strange, too."

Shen Yue looked up. "Just spit it out."

Yang Chi: "..."

The next second, he began speaking in a rapid, unbroken stream:

"For this operation, the Abnormal Ability Research Institute and the Special Service Team bypassed South City’s base directly. The base didn’t get any word of it beforehand. They only got the news after the arrest operation had already started, and in their haste, they only managed to send one garrison squad over..."

Seeing him acting up, Shen Yue, for once, didn’t chew him out. After a moment of silence, he asked, "So you’re saying the Special Service Team has already taken the suspects back to the Central Base?"

"Not exactly." Yang Chi slowly shook his head.

This time, he didn’t try to be mysterious and said directly, "Apparently, the South City base was extremely unhappy that the Abnormal Ability Research Institute bypassed them to make an arrest on their turf. So, they intercepted them."

Shen Yue was a little surprised. "Intercepted them? And the Institute didn’t raise hell? ’That doesn’t sound like those guys from the Abnormal Ability Research Institute.’" 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Yang Chi pushed up the glasses on his nose and said meaningfully, "The Special Service Team sent to the South City base for this mission only had six people."

Meanwhile, the permanent garrison force of the South City base numbers over ten thousand.

And it was on their home turf. If the base was determined to stop them, what could the people from the Abnormal Ability Research Institute do, no matter how overbearing they were?

Unless the one who came was Ye Junhan.

But as it happened, Ye Junhan had been transferred away by Zhou Jinyu just two days prior...

You could only say that this time, the Abnormal Ability Research Institute had probably shot itself in the foot.

But Ye Junhan was clearly not someone to be trifled with, a fact everyone understood. This meant the operation itself was likely far more valuable than the act of sidelining him. Otherwise, Zhou Jinyu wouldn’t have personally gone to such lengths to deliberately transfer Ye Junhan away several days in advance...

Those three wanted criminals were hiding a secret—a huge secret!

Yang Chi subconsciously looked up at his cousin.

’If things are really as I’ve deduced, there’s no way the military won’t get involved...’

Shen Yue frowned slightly. On the surface, this seemed like a conflict between the South City base and the Abnormal Ability Research Institute, but Gu Xi had said someone took her things...

’There’s definitely more to this than meets the eye,’ Shen Yue judged almost instantaneously. ’Who knows how many different factions are playing a grand game here?’

Just then, Yang Chi dropped another bombshell:

"Last night, the Abnormal Ability Research Institute and the South City base bickered over this all night. It wasn’t until 8 o’clock this morning that the three wanted criminals were finally imprisoned in South City’s Unit 176."

’Unit 176?’

"Are you sure?" Shen Yue’s brow furrowed, his expression grave.

Yang Chi nodded.

Everyone knew what kind of place Unit 176 was. For those three wanted criminals to be locked up there, you didn’t have to be a genius to know this matter was far from simple.

Who knew what kind of earth-shattering secret might be hidden within?

Shen Yue thought for a moment, then raised a hand to pat his little cousin’s shoulder. "Then you keep following up on this. It would be best if you could pull some strings over at Unit 176..."

Yang Chi’s face went blank. "Bro, my dear cousin, you really overestimate me."

’That’s Unit 176, the most heavily guarded place in the entire city! Is that somewhere an ordinary, unremarkable Agricultural University student like me can just reach into?’

"Cousin, I have faith in you," Shen Yue said, pressing down firmly on his little cousin’s shoulder. "Besides, you already ate the roasted sweet potato I gave you!"

’Once you take from others, you’re in their debt. How could a university student like you not understand such a simple principle?’

Yang Chi’s mouth twitched. "You really are my dear cousin."

"Good luck." Shen Yue clapped his cousin on the shoulder and turned to walk toward his office.

Time was tight and the task was important. He had to hurry and find his old man to dig up some information.

Shen Yue had a gut feeling that this incident might just be the breakthrough he needed for his current mission...