Without waiting for Shang Jianyao, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen to respond, Jiang Baimian chuckled:
“We don’t have any affiliation. He didn't get temporary war authorization either. He's just a little higher in rank, but not quite at the management level. Why should I be afraid of him?”
“In other words, even if Wang Beicheng forcibly enlists us to participate in the following matters as the captain of the Action Team, we can ignore him?” Bai Chen was still adapting to the detailed rules within “Pangu Biology.”
Not to mention her, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong, who had just left school and joined the Security Department, were also confused about the issue of authority in similar scenarios.
“That’s right.” Jiang Baimian replied with a smile, “We are a special team directly under Deputy Minister Xi Yu. Even the Director of the Action Cluster at the management level can’t command us without temporary war authorization from the board.”
Xi Yu was a deputy minister of the Security Department, equivalent in rank to the Director of the Action Cluster, both at the M1 level—the Security Department’s Director of the Action Cluster and the Deputy Minister simply have different focuses and are not ranked higher or lower. Sometimes, some Directors of the Action Cluster also serve as Deputy Ministers.
Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong were not at all unfamiliar with Xi Yu. This was not only because the lady was the top superior of their top superior, but also because she was very famous: she was one of the few Red River people within "Pangu Biology". Her name, pupil color, and hair color were different from most employees. In addition, she belonged to the clerical system of the Security Department and gradually promoted to Deputy Minister, which was a special case.
—The Security Department’s clerical system is not open to new employees participating in work assignments for the first time, unless they are talented people who have been designated for training before entering university, and Xi Yu belonged to this type.
Shang Jianyao listened attentively and calmly raised a question:
“Can the Minister command us?”
“…” Jiang Baimian’s smile became strained. “Of course.”
Hearing this, Bai Chen roughly understood the organizational structure of the Security Department and turned to ask:
“What if Wang Beicheng insists on enlisting us? Forcibly enlisting.”
“I don’t care about him.” Jiang Baimian answered without hesitation, “At that time, we’ll just leave. Can he stop me?”
“Aren’t you afraid he will use force?” Bai Chen pressed.
Jiang Baimian's expression suddenly became a little wonderful. She carefully looked at Bai Chen's small face and said with undisguised smile:
"You have to remember, this is a large force army, not a team composed of wasteland wanderers.
"Even if Wang Beicheng really dares to go crazy, his subordinates would not dare!
"Every employee in the Security Department is very clear about the consequences of attacking colleagues for no reason: imprisonment and forced labor for more than ten years at best, the death penalty at worst, and even the exile of the entire family."
"Framing, setting up, silencing, keeping secrets, is that not possible?" Bai Chen raised a question.
"That's an additional crime." Jiang Baimian looked at Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong sideways, "The main thing is, who would accompany Wang Beicheng to be so crazy? We're risking our lives here, loyal to the company, the company that can provide us and our families with a stable life and basic supplies. Can Wang Beicheng guarantee these things?
"What else can he provide? At most, it's just the opportunity for promotion, and inclination when distributing spoils, but compared to the serious consequences after exposure, what does that count for?
"Even if someone is blinded by greed, how many opportunities can Wang Beicheng provide? Can it cover the entire Action Team of a hundred people?
"If there are only him and five or six confidants here, then I really need to worry about it, but with dozens or hundreds of people in this area, how can he frame, set up, silence, and keep secrets? Once a few people regret it and secretly report it to atone for their sins, the whole thing will be exposed, and the consequences will be very serious.
"Not to mention, this madness is only for a bit of emotion, who is willing to do it?"
Bai Chen slowly nodded:
"Indeed, there are many people with many mouths.
"And you can't just leave your confidants behind and kill everyone else."
If only a few people from the entire Action Team go back, then the problem is almost written on their faces.
Moreover, if a few people want to deal with nearly a hundred people, and the weapons are not much different, who silences who is not certain.
"Even Wang Beicheng's confidants may not dare to go crazy with him." Jiang Baimian smiled slightly, "Shang Jianyao, Long Yuehong, if I asked you to beat Wang Beicheng in front of many people, would you dare?"
Long Yuehong was silent for a few seconds and weakly replied:
"Can't beat him..."
"If you could beat him, would you dare to beat him?" Jiang Baimian asked amusingly.
At this moment, Shang Jianyao nodded seriously:
"Dare!
"No need to assume, when I return to the company, I will beat Wang Beicheng up!"
"Heh..." Jiang Baimian sneered.
Beating him up after returning to the company is called “fighting.” Generally, the Order Supervisors would mediate a few words, and everyone goes home. A slightly more serious case would be imprisonment for ten days to half a month and a fine of one month’s contribution points. Moreover, in order not to let the punished starve to death, the deducted contribution points would be humanely spread out within a year.
As long as you don't beat the other party too badly, the worst result of a similar fight is being transferred to a bad position, but within "Pangu Biology", there are almost no positions more dangerous than being a member of the "Old Task Force"—there are not many with similar levels of danger.
Listening to Shang Jianyao and others say this one after another, Bai Chen suddenly interjected:
"What exactly did Wang Beicheng do wrong?"
Why did they start seriously discussing whether to beat him up and how to beat him up specifically?
"Uh..." Jiang Baimian fell into deep thought.
"..." Long Yuehong only then realized that with the previous discussion, Wang Beicheng's image in his mind had become inexplicably bad, almost like a heinous villain.
Only Shang Jianyao answered seriously:
"He's wrong because he doesn't sing well."
"How do you know?" Bai Chen subconsciously asked.
Shang Jianyao nodded:
"I guessed."
"..." Bai Chen realized once again that it was her fault to seriously discuss issues with Shang Jianyao, because she never knew when the other party was joking and when he was "sick."
"Alright, alright." Jiang Baimian clapped her hands. "It's time to prepare dinner. By the way, Shang Jianyao, you sleep first later to see if you'll enter a real nightmare again."
After giving instructions, she thought for a while and added:
"To be honest, I'm still quite afraid of Wang Beicheng knowing that we have military exoskeletons. Generally speaking, for similar high-end equipment, each ordinary action group might only have a few in total, and they are concentrated in a certain group of a certain team. Wang Beicheng and the others might not have them."
"Aren't you afraid?" Long Yuehong didn't understand why the team leader had changed her mind again.
Jiang Baimian gave a self-deprecating smile:
"I'm not afraid of him forcibly requisitioning them, I'm afraid of him begging bitterly.
"Their next action is definitely more dangerous than ours, so it's only reasonable to lend them the exoskeletons. Sigh, I'm a soft-hearted person.
"Moreover, when we return to the company, this kind of equipment must be handed over and uniformly distributed by the higher-ups. It's impossible for it to belong to us."
"Then you can lend them..." Long Yuehong was even more confused.
Jiang Baimian looked at them one by one:
"Isn't this to prevent accidents?
"I've noticed that this wilderness training has not been smooth:
"We encountered a seemingly ordinary bandit group that actually had exoskeletons; we took the most normal road and encountered swamp erosion with Black Marsh Iron Snakes lurking; we went to train in a worthless steel factory ruins and encountered Mechanical Monk Jingfa; we went to Black Rat Town to borrow a radio transceiver and a town massacre happened; we thought about waiting for the company to send someone over and encountered an abnormality, falling into a real nightmare... Also, north of Yue Lu Station, not earlier, not later, but they discovered the ruins of an Old World city at this time...
"To sum it up, we've probably been having bad luck lately. Who knows what other accidents will happen later, so we have to leave the exoskeletons behind to enhance our team's strength."
"Yes, yes!" Long Yuehong deeply agreed, and Bai Chen couldn't help but nod slightly.
In any case, their own lives were more important!
Shang Jianyao opened his mouth, just about to say something, but Jiang Baimian glared at him:
"You don't need to say it!"
Jiang Baimian then chuckled:
"Unless it's too important."
Seeing that Shang Jianyao didn't speak again, Jiang Baimian considered and said again:
"At the same time, I'm concealing the exoskeleton and the Shuiwei Town incident to cover for Shang Jianyao."
"Ah?" Long Yuehong looked blank.
Jiang Baimian smiled and said:
"These two things can't be concealed for long and must be written in the report when we get back.
"Concealing them now, even if Wang Beicheng and the others have some doubts, they'll suddenly understand when they ask after we get back: Oh, so these are the things we concealed, so we had these little thoughts...
"That way, they won't think that we have other secrets.
"With the two things confirming each other, the company won't suspect anything either."
"I see..." Long Yuehong thought this seemed very impressive, but he couldn't sort out his thoughts for a moment.
Bai Chen and Shang Jianyao nodded thoughtfully.
Next, there were no incidents overnight, and the abnormality seemed to have moved away from this area.
When it was dawn, after breakfast, they waited for Wang Beicheng's deputy and were invited outside Black Rat Town.
Wang Beicheng, wearing a gray-black beret, said to Jiang Baimian with a serious expression:
"Several reconnaissance squads have given feedback, with two main points:
"First, a dozen members of the 'Hyena' bandit group and the vassals they kidnapped died strangely the night before last, without any cause. This frightened the 'Hyena', causing him to abandon the vassals the day before yesterday morning and only took the remaining twelve or thirteen core members north to the newly discovered ruins of the Old World city.
"Second, the newly discovered ruins of the Old World city are less than 50 kilometers from here."
"So close?" Jiang Baimian was slightly surprised.
Wang Beicheng glanced at the northwestern sky:
"Before, it was only said that it was north of Yue Lu Station, but it's not due north, but northeast. It's not too far from here."
"No wonder..." Jiang Baimian muttered after listening.
No wonder the abnormality of the real nightmare would "spread" to the Black Rat Town area.
"We have to leave immediately. Do you need any help?" Wang Beicheng turned to ask.
"No." Jiang Baimian sincerely wished, "May we meet again in the future."
"Hope we can see each other again." Wang Beicheng waved his hand and began to gather his team, heading towards the northwest.
After watching their various vehicles, including armored vehicles, go far away, Jiang Baimian breathed a long sigh of relief:
"Let's go too, towards our original destination.
"I finally don't have to struggle between first-hand information about the Old World ruins and the safety of the two rookies!"
ps: Early update for recommendation tickets~