Chapter 463: Chapter 171: Since We’re Here, A Bountiful Search for Materials!

"Long, what about the things found on him and at his place?"

Cheng Ye withdrew his gaze from Wang Qing and turned to look at Long beside him.

"Got it all, let me get it!" Long didn’t dare delay, turned, and quickly walked to the storage room, returning with a transparent plastic bag in less than half a minute.

Wang Qing’s name and the time the items were found were written on the bag with a black marker.

Cheng Ye opened the plastic bag, and the contents were very simple.

A guard pistol that everyone in the Buffer Zone had, scattered Happiness Coins totaling a value of 246 coins, and a Happiness City resident badge used for disguise.

He took out the Defense Communication, verified the resident badge, and the screen immediately displayed the identity information, with the face in the photo bearing a seventy-percent resemblance to Wang Qing.

It’s understandable that if the on-duty inspectors hadn’t thoroughly checked, he could have slipped through.

But the silver Pinghai Building badge seen in the intelligence space was nowhere to be found.

Was it hidden outside in the Wilderness and didn’t dare bring it in?

Or...

"Is this all that was found at his place? Nothing else?"

"Just some worn clothes, a canvas backpack, and common supplies. I’ve checked everything, found nothing abnormal." Long nodded, seeing Cheng Ye frown slightly, and added, "Shall I bring the backpack over for you to look at again?"

"Bring it over."

Soon, a worn canvas backpack was handed to Cheng Ye.

He unzipped it, and the items inside were neatly organized:

Two patched-up jackets, pants, several pairs of socks, a small bundle of rope, a simple water filter, a box of bullets, and six packets of expired nutrient paste.

Cheng Ye dumped the items onto the table one by one, checking through them carefully.

Nothing was hidden in the clothing seams, the water filter, once disassembled, was just an ordinary filter element, and the rope was nothing special.

His gaze finally settled on those six packets of nutrient paste.

After the nutrient paste expires, the liquid inside becomes gradually thicker, like glue, and the inside becomes harder.

But under the overhead light, Cheng Ye sharply noticed that the liquid in one packet was slightly less thick than the other five.

Taking out a flashlight from the backpack, he shone the beam through the nutrient paste package.

Cheng Ye’s lips curved into a slight smile, for in the thick, pale yellow liquid, a small object shadow could be seen, securely wrapped inside.

"Go rip the package open, be careful not to get the paste inside, then clean that thing and bring it over." Cheng Ye handed the nutrient paste to Long, giving special instructions.

"Yes!"

Long took the nutrient paste, mimicked Cheng Ye’s action to look inside with light, and was momentarily baffled.

Elder He and his team interrogated for three days, even resorting to severe punishment, yet didn’t get a word out of Wang Qing.

Inspector Cheng just started and already made a breakthrough?

He didn’t dare procrastinate, immediately taking people to the restroom to extract the object, and indeed he found a badge hidden inside.

Covered with sticky nutrient paste, yet its intricate design was still visible.

Rinsed it clean with clear water, dried it with paper towels, and Long returned, holding it carefully with gloves on.

Cheng Ye also dug out a pair of examination gloves from the backpack, wore it, held the edge of the badge with his fingertips, and brought it close to his eyes to examine carefully.

The badge was only bottle cap-sized, icy to the touch, yet surprisingly light, feeling like he held a leaf.

Unexpectedly, Pinghai Building, this violent platform, had a touch of "artistic aesthetics."

On the front, in tiny engraved font, were two lines of poetry: "Love across mountains and seas, mountains and seas can be leveled."

The reverse side was embossed with a wave pattern, amidst the undulating waves, the upper right corner had a small sun, the upper left was a crescent, and at the very bottom center was a series of code-like numbers:

[02W76]

Cheng Ye holding the badge, approached Wang Qing, lightly shook it, and suddenly spoke, imitating the tone between Wang Qing and the bartender from the intelligence: "Please give me a glass of orange sunlight."

But Wang Qing only sat there dumbly, with a silly smile, his gaze empty, without the slightest reaction.

Looks like after the "illness worm" has fully erupted, he’s truly left with only the mechanical instinct to repeat actions, all autonomous consciousness utterly destroyed.

"Unless we find a matching infection source, but this difficulty...is akin to annihilating Shan Hai Tower."

Cheng Ye shook his head lightly, having already made a decision.

After extracting all valuable skills and information, he knew they couldn’t keep the person detained in the community and would ultimately have to hand him over to the checkpoint.

If no surprises happen, these four would surely be taken by the checkpoint for cranial autopsy.

Who knows, perhaps out of the 99% mortality rate, one lucky soul might survive.

"How about the other people’s items? Bring them over for me to see too."

Long successively fetched the other three people’s bags of items and miscellaneous objects, with the contents of the bags strikingly similar:

Everyone had a gun, a small amount of Happiness Coins, and a resident badge.

But from the remaining miscellaneous items, Cheng Ye quickly found three more Pinghai Building badges.

One was fashioned to look like a clothing button, sewn onto the waistband of work trousers, another hidden in the insole’s middle layer, and yet another stuffed into a water bottle’s insulation layer; without disassembly, it was nearly impossible to discover.

"Sir, this..." Long gaped, looking at the three bronze badges in Cheng Ye’s hand, completely dumbstruck.

"It’s fine, you guys aren’t professionals, it’s normal not to notice."

Cheng Ye chuckled, having these four badges further confirmed the four as Pinghai Building mercenaries.

However, unlike Wang Qing’s badge, the remaining three badges were all bronze, again etched with waves and sun-moon patterns on the reverse side, along with a series of verification numbers.