"Pei Yan, co over here for a mont!" Shangxing’s shout interrupted Pei Yan, who was already engaged in a battle of wits with the air. Upon hearing the captain’s call, he turned and went over to him.
Shangxing gestured with his head and instructed, "In the past, we used other equipnt to interfere with electronic devices near the task area, but now that we have you, it has saved us a lot of trouble. Can you control all the electronic facilities nearby?"
"No problem!" Pei Yan shrugged. This was just child’s play to him at this point. With his eyes closed, he had a clear picture of all the electronic facilities within a two-kiloter radius. After leaving his mark on all the electronic facilities closest to the incident site, Pei Yan opened his eyes and nodded to Shangxing.
Shangxing patted Pei Yan’s shoulder with satisfaction, lightly touched his ring, and two sturdy chairs appeared in his hand. He handed one to Pei Yan, while he placed the other on a relatively flat spot by the pond and sat down.
"Sit down!" Shangxing pointed at the chair, seeing Pei Yan absentmindedly holding the chair and staring at him.
"Oh!" Pei Yan sat in the chair woodenly, licked his lips while watching Xia Yu, Ye Jiumu, and Zhao Yuanhu hustling around, and asked, "Captain, shouldn’t I be helping them?"
"No need. We have clear divisions of labor. They can’t do your work, and you can’t do theirs!" As Shangxing spoke, he took out a book from his ring, waved his hand to the sky, and a thin internal barrier appeared above the two of them, keeping the drizzling rain out. He leaned back on the chair and started to enjoy the book in his hand.
Pei Yan looked at the book cover and found it was "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban." Why was he reading while on a mission? Why Harry Potter? Although Pei Yan felt a million grass-mud horses with question marks running in his mind, seeing how engrossed Shangxing was in the book, he knew better than to disturb his superior’s mood. Thus, he swallowed his questions and sat on the chair awkwardly.
About fifteen minutes passed. From who knows when, a thick fog suddenly rose around the previously wide-open pond and soon beca unstoppable, enveloping the surroundings of the pond completely.
Upon seeing this scene, Pei Yan imdiately stood up from the chair, scanning the surroundings vigilantly with chanical precision.
"Don’t worry, this was made by Jiumu and Xia Yu." Shangxing turned the page of his book without lifting his head.
Only then did Pei Yan realize that Xia Yu and the other two, forrly busy, had set up chairs not far off. Seeing Pei Yan looking their way, they waved at him.
"Go on, if you feel uncomfortable here, go over to them."
"Alright!" Relieved to be excused by Shangxing, Pei Yan carried his chair and trotted over to the trio, curious about what they had done just now after setting his chair down.
"Mist, illusion array, protective array to encircle this area. To outsiders, it looks the sa as before, but trying to enter here inexplicably leads them to the other side of the road. This is one of the Bureau’s thods to prevent cross-dinsional trespassers from escaping or ordinary citizens from getting caught in cross-dinsional incidents," Ye Jiumu explained, sitting on a fishing chair and fiddling with a fishing rod he retrieved from his ring.
Shangxing turned his chair backward and asked with curiosity, "Why are you fishing?"
"Why not fish? This used to be a deepwater pool later leased by the Bureau to use as a fishpond, and it doesn’t make much money anyway. It’s a waste not to fish." Ye Jiumu chuckled, showing a laissez-faire attitude. Even though the Bureau had been renad as Departnt, they couldn’t drop the old terms.
Pei Yan grew more confused and pressed, "Contract a fishpond? What mission are we here to execute?"
"Xia Yu, explain to him." Ye Jiumu said, casting the baited fishing line into the pond and settling back, no longer speaking.
"We are indeed here to execute a task to prevent cross-dinsional breaches. You’ve been busy with physical and ability training, so you aren’t yet familiar with mission procedures. Today, I’ll explain the three common cross-dinsional rifts we encounter during missions," Xia Yu said, pulling out a box of Xuanhe Sect from his pocket. He offered a cigarette to Zhao Yuanhu, who he had just t. Seeing her decline, Xia Yu hesitated and started to put the cigarette back in his pocket.
Zhao Yuanhu quickly reached out to stop him, saying, "Go ahead, smoke if you want. I was used to it since my forr teammates were chain smokers."
"I thought you smoked too. Are you sure it’s okay? You don’t have to tolerate our second-hand smoke if you find it uncomfortable."
"It’s really fine, go ahead!"
Xia Yu, seeing her agreent, took a cigarette, lit it, and resud speaking to Pei Yan, "Where was I?"
"The three types of cross-dinsional rifts."
"Right, the three types. The first type is the gradual rift. This kind forms due to energy accumulation over ti at an unstable point in space, gradually penetrating the plane barrier and creating a rift. The Investigation Agency can detect the abnormal energy buildup before the rift fully opens, allowing most such incidents to be resolved through energy redirection or spatial reinforcent before they fully break out. It can be troubleso, but it’s the simplest to handle." With that, Xia Yu glanced aside and exhaled smoke from his mouth.
He flicked the ash off his cigarette and extended two fingers from his left hand, continuing, "The second type is the most frequently accidental - when a normally stable space is forcibly breached either by accident or human intervention without any prior warning, constituting a forced breach. These incidents occur less but are the most troubleso and complicated."
Saying this, Xia Yu gestured at the pond before them with his cigarette, "Then there’s the third type, related to old issues, residual rifts left from the last great invasion era. Despite makeshift repairs, they are difficult to close completely. Forcibly fixing them can cause energy to accumulate, leading to a large eruption that widens the rift. Thus, we let them open on their own periodically. This type of task poses minimal risk since entities on either side are fully aware of the rift’s location. When the ti cos, both sides secure the rift and wait for it to discharge. Once done, they seal it again."
"Oh, so here is where the third kind of rift is going to open, and that’s why the Bureau leased the deepwater pool as a fishpond? How long will we wait?" Upon hearing this, Pei Yan suddenly realized the situation and asked eagerly.
Zhao Yuanhu lay on a rocking chair, watching rain droplets hit the internal barrier she had established, rocking gently as she lazily replied, "There’s no telling with these things. It could open in five minutes, or it might take two or three days, but never more than a week."
"What? A week!"
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