In a daze, Zhou Chen heard the faint sound of conversation. He groggily opened his eyes and saw the familiar ceiling and room furnishings.
'Not this hospital room again...'
'Is this the medical department's sick joke?'
He rubbed his throbbing temples. His head and back were killing him; the aftereffects of taking an Air Cannon blast at point-blank range were no joke.
Just then, Jiang Che pushed the door open. She froze for a moment when she saw Zhou Chen was awake. "Your doctor just said you wouldn't be up until tomorrow at the earliest. How are you feeling?"
Zhou Chen sighed. "My head's killing me, and my whole body feels like it's about to fall apart... Did you come just to see me?"
"It was on my way after work."
'Fair enough. At least she still came to visit...' Zhou Chen sat up in bed and asked, "Did the interrogation turn up anything useful?"
Jiang Che pulled a chair up to the bedside and sat down, taking a portable work tablet out of her bag.
"Wait a minute, this scene feels familiar," Zhou Chen said, suddenly struck by a strong sense of déjà vu.
"If I recall correctly, the last time was six days ago."
Jiang Che replied casually as she pulled up the mission report and handed the tablet to him.
"You did a great job this time. Fina Blanch is, in fact, Eternal Fire's Steward in the Jinzhu Region. We've hooked a big one.
She was adopted by an Eternal Fire Fanatic at age four. By twelve, she was already secretly murdering people and committing arson, stopping at nothing. At fourteen, she officially became an Ascender, and at seventeen, she was sent to Jinzhu to lie low.
Over the past decade, she's been secretly responsible for many of the missing person cases in Jinzhu."
"She just goes out and kills people for fun?" Zhou Chen asked, surprised. 'Abyssal Cultists really are a bunch of lunatics.'
"Eating people," Jiang Che corrected.
"What??"
Zhou Chen was dumbfounded, his face a mask of disbelief. "Eating people?"
"The Abyssal Sect worships Abyssal Creatures. To an Abyssal Creature, what are humans but food? As their followers, it's only natural for them to partake of the 'Holy Meal.'"
Zhou Chen lowered his head, frowning in silence as he flipped through the interrogation record.
He had no idea what kind of interrogation methods the Star Association used to have stripped Fina's past so completely bare. Even the scenes she saw while attending an Eternal Fire "ritual" at five or six years old were described in minute detail, as if her entire life had been transcribed into text.
Such a meticulous process revealed a history of sins so profound they couldn't be contained in ten pages.
This gave Zhou Chen a much deeper understanding of the Abyssal Sect's true nature.
'Evil, fanatical, subversive to the core... They've abandoned all their humanity, choosing to believe in the Abyss and embrace Hell...'
"On top of that, she's been secretly preaching all these years. Guess where her influence is strongest?"
Zhou Chen's mind raced, and the answer came to him almost instantly—
"—Jinzhu University?"
Jiang Che nodded. "During her four years at the university, she secretly lured more than twenty people into the cult. Those twenty-plus people then went on to lure in others. After all this time, I'm afraid Eternal Fire has already become a formidable presence.
Especially at Jinzhu University. Perhaps one of your former professors, a classmate, or even one of the cafeteria cooks could secretly be an Eternal Fire Fanatic."
"It's that serious?"
Zhou Chen never imagined his university had become a recruiting hotbed for the Abyssal Sect. "I was pretty well-connected in college. How did I never hear a thing about this?"
"They're not idiots. It's not like they'd go around broadcasting their ideology to the whole world."
Jiang Che said calmly, "On the contrary, they hide. Only after they've carefully vetted and selected a potential convert do they cautiously make contact in secret. Otherwise, do you think any normal, well-educated person would fall for that stuff?"
Zhou Chen shook his head. 'Anyone in their right mind would call the police the moment they got preached to.'
"Ninety-nine percent of the World's cults don't reveal their ideology upfront. Instead, they unconditionally give their targets whatever they desire—money, Power, health... They satisfy the target's every need, luring them step-by-step into an abyss of desire. By the time the person wants more, it's too late to turn back."
Zhou Chen nodded in agreement, right before he heard Jiang Che say, "So, during the Jinzhu University anniversary celebration in five days, I need you to find an opportunity to infiltrate Eternal Fire."
"???"
Zhou Chen's mind went blank.
'What the...? What's going on? What's the situation?'
'Another mission for me?'
"Sister Jiang, Sister Che... Look at me! I'm in and out of the hospital, practically disabled... I'm a wreck! Shouldn't you maybe reduce the frequency of my missions? It's not like the Star Association is short on people. Why do you always have to pick on a poor intern Operator like me..." Zhou Chen put on a pained expression and began to lay it on thick.
"That's true. There are a few other Jinzhu University graduates in the Star Association."
Jiang Che looked at him calmly. "But you're just too perfect for the job."
"Exceptional Ability, first-class acting skills... By the way, your performance on this mission earned you unanimous approval from the entire command staff. They even want you to perform at this year's gala.
—More importantly, almost everyone knows about your damaged Soul. Don't you think Eternal Fire will seize this opportunity to make contact and try to turn you into their mole inside the Star Association?"
"..."
'So we're playing *Infernal Affairs* now?'
'What is this? The organization wants me to become a mole?'
"You're saying Eternal Fire already knows about me? But my case is supposed to be internal to the Star Association..."
As he said this, Zhou Chen froze, instinctively lowering his voice.
"There's a mole in the Star Association?"
"We found one. She's in the Civil Affairs Department. Became a follower of Eternal Fire four years ago and still maintains close contact with the other followers at Jinzhu University."
Jiang Che swiped down on the tablet, quickly pulling up an ID photo.
"Xu Lingling... A liberal arts major. Never heard of her."
Zhou Chen read the file in detail. It stated that during her sophomore year, her family had suffered a sudden turn of fortune. The shopping mall they operated was on the verge of bankruptcy. After struggling to hold on for more than six months, just when they were about to go under, they were unexpectedly noticed by a major entrepreneur who invested a large sum of money and single-handedly revived the business.
In hindsight, that must have been the "Power" that Eternal Fire had demonstrated.
Jiang Che explained, "Aside from the Special Operations Team and a few other special departments, no one knows that you've become an Ascender.
So, to outsiders, you're just an unlucky bastard who lost half of his Soul in an accident right after starting his internship with the Star Association. You're now just lying around waiting to die, desperate for a cure.
Given Eternal Fire's M.O., there's a seventy-percent chance they'll make contact with you at the anniversary celebration.
Of course, if you don't want to take the mission, I won't force you."
Zhou Chen let out a sigh of relief, but then he heard Jiang Che add another sentence.
"—If you don't want the Star Mango, that is."
"..."
Zhou Chen's first instinct was that Jiang Che was threatening him, but he quickly dismissed the thought. Her real meaning had to be that this mission was related to the shipment "Eternal Fire" had stolen!