Chapter 96: 执法官

"This, how is this possible?"

Guo's eyes widened. At that moment, the wounds on his body seemed to no longer hurt.

So many shops were scared into closing, then carefully sent out "protection money"...It turned out to be these?

An endless confusion surged into his heart. Guo suddenly felt as if he had been played for a fool. The other two enforcers were in the same state, standing there like two wind-dried sculptures.

"Zuo Tong, Guo Nan." Han Meng's icy gaze swept over the two of them. "This is what you call... mass profiteering?"

"This... this shouldn't be happening??""Chief Han Meng, there must be some misunderstanding here..." Guo gritted his teeth and forced out this sentence.

Guo's thoughts had completely turned to mush. He couldn't understand why the shops on that street went to such great lengths just to give Chen Ling these things. Who in their right mind would use so many beast hearts as protection money? Wouldn't that be unhealthy to eat?

"But he was indeed the one who attacked first!" Guo changed the subject, speaking again through the pain. "I hadn't even said a full sentence to him when he stabbed me with a knife... He's a madman!"

Han Meng then turned to Chen Ling, "And you, do you have anything to say?"

"He was bullying the residents in my jurisdiction. I was merely enforcing the law impartially, acting in self-defense."

"You call this self-defense? I'm already..."

"I can testify that Officer Chen Ling was indeed acting in self-defense." The old man who had stepped forward immediately spoke."I can testify too.""Me too..."

More and more people testified for Chen Ling. Han Meng gave Guo a cold glance. Guo was about to say something in his defense but ultimately remained silent, merely staring venomously at Chen Ling.

Chen Ling didn't care about Guo's gaze; to him, it was no different from a passing dung beetle staring at him.

Just then, Han Meng took out a document from his pocket and handed it to Chen Ling.

"What is this?" Chen Ling asked.

"Your letter of appointment." Han Meng's voice rang out calmly. "I was originally going to deliver it directly to you... but then I heard you were here, so I came by on my way. Aurora City has appointed you as the District Three Enforcer. From today onward, you will report directly to me... and you will also have the authority to manage all enforcers in District Three."

Everyone was stunned.

The venom in Guo's eyes first turned to shock, then to disbelief. After he saw Chen Ling expressionlessly accept the letter of appointment, only blankness remained on his face. His mind immediately recalled the terrifying speed and strength with which Chen Ling had kicked him earlier, and his face turned exceptionally grim. He had just offended Chen Ling, and the other party was already promoted to Enforcer??

Aside from Han Meng, no one knew that Chen Ling had already embarked on the Path of the War God. He himself had no intention of publicizing it. If it were previous enforcers who had embarked on the Path of the War God, they would have immediately begun to widely publicize it and recruit followers upon their return.

Chen Ling glanced at the letter of appointment and turned to Han Meng, "Where's my uniform?"

"It's the trench coat like the one you're wearing... The enforcers' uniform is too ugly."

"..." Han Meng gave him a strange look, then turned and walked out. "Come with me to get it."

As Chen Ling and Han Meng walked away side by side, the market once again fell into a dead silence. Guo stared blankly at Chen Ling's departing back, his heart plummeting into despair.

"A clichéd plot," Chen Ling sighed.

"What?"

"...Nothing, I just said it randomly."

Chen Ling glanced at the audience's expectation value displayed on the snow nearby. Since entering the market, it had only increased by a total of 9... 7 of which were gained the moment he opened the bag, and the remaining 2 were when the letter of appointment was given later. If Chen Ling had known about this interlude beforehand, he was confident he could have manipulated it to double the audience's expectation value. Unfortunately, everything happened too suddenly... However, having expectation value delivered directly to him while walking on the main road was quite nice. If only there were a few more people like Guo Nan.

"You clearly know there's a phenomenon of enforcers collecting protection money, so why don't you do anything about it?" Chen Ling asked, voicing a long-held doubt.

"Do something? How?" Han Meng shook his head. "When I was promoted to Enforcer back then, I also tried to solve this problem, but it was simply unfeasible..."

"Not even if regulations are strictly enforced?"

"You don't understand. The root of all this isn't with the enforcers, but with the residents themselves," Han Meng said slowly. "The people here have been enslaved for too long. For the past hundred years, they have relied on offering money to gain protection from enforcers and live peacefully... Their fathers and grandfathers all lived this way. Even if you tell them they no longer need to make offerings from now on, they will feel uneasy. It's not so easy to change the confined mindset of a generation and remove the weakness and inferiority from their hearts..."

Chen Ling remained silent for a long time, recalling the situation on the day he first became an enforcer, and nodded slightly.

Chen Ling followed Han Meng to the District Three Enforcer Headquarters. Han Meng retrieved a trench coat with a silver emblem from a cabinet and neatly placed it on the table.

"This one is yours."

Chen Ling put on the black trench coat. The size was indeed fitting. He looked at himself in the mirror, and his demeanor had become much calmer.

"The ranking of Enforcers is determined by the pattern on the hem of the trench coat. The number of patterns indicates your tier of power; if you possess a certain tier of power, you are that many-patterned Enforcer. After each promotion, you must report to Aurora City, and they will immediately send you a uniform with the corresponding pattern."

"What is the highest-ranked Enforcer in the Aurora Realm right now?" Chen Ling asked.

"Eight-patterned, and there are only two of them."

"So few?"

"Do you think it's easy to reach the eight-patterned rank?" Han Meng glanced at him. "In the entire human world, there aren't many eight-patterned powerhouses. Each one could destroy all of District Three with a casual wave... Those two eight-patterned Enforcers have been powerhouses in the Aurora Realm for a hundred years already."

"Is there no nine-patterned Enforcer in the Aurora Realm?"

"There are no nine-patterned Enforcers." Han Meng paused for a moment. "However, there is one Ninth-tier..."

Chen Ling froze for a moment, then understood Han Meng's meaning. Aurora City had a Ninth-tier individual, but that person was not part of the Enforcer system.

"He's not from the Path of the War God?" Chen Ling asked tentatively.

"No, that individual doesn't belong to any of the divine paths..."

"Doesn't belong to any divine path?" Chen Ling asked, puzzled. "Can one still advance to the Ninth-tier without a divine path? How did he do it?"

"That individual's situation is very complex... You just need to know that he doesn't belong to any path, yet he possesses extremely powerful authority. Even the Aurora Realm where we reside exists because of him."

Upon hearing the last sentence, shock appeared in Chen Ling's eyes. A realm existing because of one person?

"Who is he?"

Han Meng paused for a moment, then slowly spoke a name:"The Aurora Lord."