Chapter 255: Third Sister
After a few more minutes, Dream Butterfly walked out of her private tent and joined Wei Chen and Mo Xingyao. The trio then entered the mess tent and enjoyed breakfast just like the other warriors in the camp.
The three spent time together, treating the camp as a simple outing.
If not for the large pile of battleship wreckage stacked not far from the camp, along with the recovered valuables stored inside the armory tent, this place would have felt no different from a leisurely vacation.
After Wei Chen had finished enjoying himself, he took his leave from his two beautiful wives to work on a plan he had been considering for quite some time.
How to reduce the death rate in this world, or at least in the Lower Realm.
He had already done his best to educate various young masters and point out many of the common death traps they would encounter, and the results had been positive. According to the previous evaluation, the death rate had already decreased.
But it still wasn’t enough.
He didn’t know whether his current achievements would be sufficient for him to pass his probation or not, but he wanted to play it as safe as possible.
Before the next evaluation, he planned to reduce it even further.
There were two plans in his mind, but before the second plan could be implemented, the first one needed to succeed. Otherwise, it would create a lot of headaches afterward.
He walked toward the back of the campsite, where the artificer tent was located.
Inside was a group of artificers working on various projects.
He wanted to find Lian Cheng. Even though that guy had been full of trouble when he first arrived, he was undeniably a genius when it came to artifact crafting.
"Yo, folks, is Lian Cheng here?" Wei Chen asked the moment he stepped through the tent flap.
He noticed several apprentices manning desks and tinkering with small artifacts, along with a senior artificer supervising them.
"Oh? Mr. Wei? Are you looking for the Chief Artificer?" the senior artificer asked.
"Yeah. Have you seen him?"
"He should be with the team measuring the river and surveying the site. They’re creating some kind of permanent structure there."
"Yeah, I heard what we’re using right now is just a patchwork solution. Is this structure supposed to permanently seal it?" Wei Chen asked.
"I don’t know, Mr. Wei. From what I understand, the higher-ups are still debating whether to permanently seal it or create some kind of gate that allows people to travel back and forth through the hole," the senior artificer replied.
"Ah, thanks. I’ll go see if he has time for a chat."
Wei Chen left the tent after thanking him.
Since Lian Cheng seemed busy at the moment, Wei Chen decided to find Youqi instead, both to propose one of his ideas and to deal with some paperwork he needed to complete.
Since Dream Butterfly had massacred the members of the three Ancient Hidden Forces, the Underworld System had apparently judged her actions as being carried out on his behalf due to the bond between husband and wife.
As a result, his account had gone from moderately in the red to extremely in the red.
Some people might ask why it mattered if he was already in the red anyway.
Of course it mattered.
The difference between owing a hundred bucks and owing a hundred thousand was enormous.
Wei Chen entered the command tent where Youqi was working.
As expected, he found her sipping coffee while monitoring the artificer teams through several displays as they worked underwater, measuring various parameters.
He also found Lian Cheng.
Well, technically, he found Lian Cheng on one of the monitors, busy setting up some kind of measuring artifact.
Youqi noticed Wei Chen entering the tent. She waved at him and set her coffee down.
"Good timing. Are you here to fill out Form EF-14B?" Youqi asked with a knowing smile.
"What form?"
"Form EF-14B. Request for Mitigating Circumstances Review. EF stands for Exigent Force," Youqi explained.
Wei Chen suddenly felt like a Neanderthal seeing a car for the first time.
His brain seemed to stop functioning after hearing words he could not decipher.
"Err... Ms. Youqi, could you please explain it in a way that even a monkey could understand?" Wei Chen asked awkwardly, his face twitching slightly.
"Okay. This form changes the incident classification from unauthorized massacre to self-defense with excessive force. That will reduce the fine even further. Following me so far?"
Youqi paused and looked at Wei Chen, who seemed to understand about half of what she was saying.
"Okay... so..."
"So... Dream Butterfly is your wife, right? The system judges her as the same legal entity as you. That’s why it automatically fined you and pushed you further into the red. Even though the penalty was already reduced by half because she acted voluntarily, the system still classifies it as unauthorized killing."
Wei Chen nodded, though his expression remained somewhat blank... devoid of any intelligence.
"And the solution I’m suggesting is to appeal the ruling. Instead of unauthorized massacre, you’ll argue that it was excessive self-defense. If the appeal succeeds, the fine will be reduced further. Got it?"
Wei Chen nodded again before resigning himself to the merciless grind of bureaucracy.
He already knew that the Underworld System he worked under was not some magical thing that could be controlled with a single thought.
Everything required documents.
Everything required paperwork and evidence.
Every process was rigid, systematic, and full of bureaucracy.
Just like the red tape from his previous life.
"Okay... Ms. Youqi, please give me the form and guide me through it," Wei Chen said.
For hours, he sat inside the command tent filling out forms while everyone else worked on the hole.
Operations around the anomaly had become much more relaxed, but the command tent remained busy. There were simply too many things that needed constant monitoring.
Eventually, Wei Chen finished all of the paperwork.
He had to make corrections many times along the way, but at long last, this... torturous ordeal finally came to an end.
"By the way..." Youqi started as he handed the document over to her. "My third sister will arrive soon and help us deal with this headache of ours. Just tell your friend, that Ximen Hao, that she’s already married. Don’t let that guy get lost in his fantasies again, got it?"
Hearing this, cold sweat ran down Wei Chen’s face and soaked his back.
"Yes, ma’am."
Wei Chen walked out of the tent without even mentioning his idea about further reducing the death rate.
Honestly, it wasn’t his fault.
Who would be in the mood to discuss work after getting told off like that?
At that moment, Wei Chen noticed a familiar-looking beautiful woman who had just arrived through a teleportation array.
She wore a white robe beneath a blue outer robe embroidered with trigram symbols.
"Huh? Is that...?" Wei Chen stared at her, trying to figure it out.
The woman had the same facial features as Yan Rongjun, but she looked much gentler and lacked the athletic, punch-first-ask-questions-never aura that Yan Rongjun had.
"Ms. Yan, is that you?" Wei Chen asked.
The woman looked toward him in confusion.
"Yes, that’s me. And you are?" she asked.
Wei Chen frowned.
Was this really the Yan Rongjun he knew?
Wait...
The same face but a completely different vibe?
"Are you related to Ms. Yan Rongjun by any chance?" he asked.
"Huh? Oh!" She smiled. "That’s my elder sister."
"We’re twins."
With that, the mystery was solved.
Then it clicked.
Wei Chen remembered Youqi mentioning her third sister.
This had to be her.
"You must have come here to help us deal with the problem of the world hole, right? Ms. Youqi is waiting for you in the command center," Wei Chen said.
"Oh, is that so? Could you please lead me to her?" she asked.
"Of course, ma’am. Right this way."
Wei Chen then led Yan Rongjun’s look-alike toward the command center.
....
After escorting Yan Rongjun’s look-alike to the command center, Wei Chen quietly retreated and walked toward the river.
He had no intention of prying into the higher-ups’ discussions regarding what to do with the anomalous hole.
At the same time, Lian Cheng had just finished taking measurements. He handed the collected data to one of the juniors in his team and instructed him to deliver it to the command center.
He then looked toward Wei Chen, who seemed to have something on his mind.
"Huh? What do you need?" he asked.
"Let’s talk over a beer and some fish and chips," Wei Chen offered.
"Okay..."
Lian Cheng didn’t mind. He wanted to take a break anyway.
Besides, he liked Wei Chen’s fish and chips.
Half an hour later, inside Wei Chen’s personal tent, a large plate of fish and chips had been served, and two ice-cold mugs of beer were waiting on the table.
Lian Cheng didn’t stand on ceremony and immediately helped himself.
At the same time, as Wei Chen sat down in his chair, he took out an artifact.
It was the very same artifact that the assassin he had killed long ago had once used against him.
The artifact that could switch the cultivation levels of those caught within its effect.
The strong would become weak.
The weak would become strong.
