After drawing cards, the evil god became my source of吐槽 (tu cao, a form of humorous commentary/criti

Chapter 74 Leaving
Special Service Division 404, late at night.

The meeting room was brightly lit, making every face look as pale and hard as if it had just stepped out of a morgue.

Seated on either side of the long table were senior personnel from various departments, and the atmosphere was tense.

This is the third time.

An old man said coldly, his eyebrows gray and his uniform as neat as a guard of honor, "Three magnetic fields, all coinciding with the time An Jing was present. Are you really going to pretend you didn't see them?!"

“It cannot be confirmed at present that it is related to her.” Another middle-aged woman said in a deep voice, her voice hoarse, “She said that she would be more attracted and have a connection with the mysterious magnetic field because of the Origin Society, but that does not mean that the magnetic field was generated by her.”

"Not enough? Three times? Once could be a coincidence, twice a chance, but three times isn't enough to prove anything?" The old man slammed his hand on the table, his tone icy cold: "We need to draw a conclusion. She is a source of danger and needs to be detained and isolated immediately. She cannot be allowed to move freely anymore!"

The expressions of the people in the room varied; some nodded, while others frowned.

Even the section chief, who usually sat at the head of the table and rarely spoke, had a solemn expression at this moment. He gently stroked the water glass in his hand but did not utter a word in defense.

"You're being ridiculous." A cold voice boomed from nowhere.

002 He Lin walked out from the corner, wearing a dark black trench coat, with a cold and stern face. Her gaze swept over everyone, and her expression was as cold as winter.

"I haven't even settled accounts with you yet, and you're already rushing to condemn me?"

A brief silence fell over the meeting room.

"Two of my employees in the information department were murdered at headquarters. The surveillance system was deliberately cut off, and the perpetrators came and went as they pleased without anyone noticing. We've been investigating for so long, but we haven't found a single clue."

He Lin stepped forward, her tone like a knife, "Instead of investigating who the murderer is, or tracking down the mole, you're focusing all your energy on a student who hasn't caused any trouble?"

She slammed her hand on the table: "What the hell are you doing?!"

“Her presence is even more dangerous.” The old man spoke again, his face full of arrogance and determination. “An Jing is out of control, and strange magnetic fields are frequently generated around her. If she really is the cause, then she is more deadly than an inside man.”

"So you dare to treat her as an enemy based on mere possibility?" He Lin smiled sarcastically. "You didn't even investigate before sentencing her to death. How ruthless."

"Then give us an explanation!" someone exclaimed. "You said your men died at headquarters, and now even an inside man can infiltrate. What does that mean? It means we don't have time to guess anymore!"

"Yes, we can't just do nothing!"

"We must control An Jing first, otherwise what if she gets out of control and something happens? Who will take responsibility?"

The clamor grew increasingly intense.

He Lin listened, then suddenly fell silent, her gaze sweeping from one side of the conference table to the other, her expression extremely cold.

"Let me tell you the truth," she said calmly.

"I am utterly disappointed with this place."

The meeting room fell silent instantly.

"Everywhere you look, there are connections and scheming people. Everyone is wary of and fighting each other. When someone dies, you just say 'Oh well' and it's over in three seconds. But when something really happens, all you do is shift the blame and see who dies the most and who gets caught the fastest."

He Lin's voice contained no anger, yet it was as chilling as frost and snow.

001, look at the faces of the people you're desperately trying to protect.

“You don’t care about the safety of the person holding the lamp at the front, or about human lives. You only care about whether you are the losers.”

After saying that, she didn't hesitate to take off the name tag of the lamplighter from her chest and throw it onto the center of the conference table with a "thud," the crisp sound seeming to slap the face of this department.

"I'm not playing along." She turned around, her back view as graceful as a blade slicing through the night. "You can play this game of power yourselves."

"002!" The section chief finally couldn't help but shout, getting up and taking half a step to catch up. "If you don't want to be the lamplighter, where do you think you're going?" He Lin turned her head slightly, her eyes cold and gloomy.

"You don't know yet, do you?" She smiled faintly, as if announcing some kind of victory declaration.

"The authorities have established a special research department on mysterious magnetic fields. From today onwards, I have independent authority and am not subject to your command."

"I'm going to become an agent now."

As soon as the words were spoken, the meeting room fell completely silent.

"002! You can't do that!"

A brief silence fell over the meeting room.

He Lin's words, "I'm going to become an agent," were like a boulder thrown into stagnant water, stirring up the deepest fear in everyone's hearts.

"This is betrayal!" The first to shout was an official in charge of front-end deployment, his face flushed and his voice full of panic.

"He Lin, you need to understand your position! You are the lamplighter, you are the core of 404. If you leave, the entire system will fall into chaos!"

"Do you realize that once you leave, there will be no one to hold the lamp and cooperate with us in the magnetic field cleansing? How are we supposed to explain this to our superiors?"

"001 is dead. Only you can keep things in order. If you leave, we'll be nothing but an empty shell!"

A series of urgent questions rang out, the tone urgent yet unable to conceal the fear and shock.

A logistics manager stood up, almost losing his composure, and said, "If you leave like this, those lamplighters won't stay with us! They trust you! They'll follow you! Do you want 404 to become an empty shell?! What about our front-end?!"

"Are you going to paralyze all departments?!"

He Lin remained unmoved by their fear.

She merely swept her gaze across the room indifferently, her voice clear and cold:
"It's too late to be afraid now."

“You are never operating for the truth and for lives; you only care about maintaining power and controlling people’s hearts.”

“I have given you chance after chance, but you have never cherished them.”

Her eyes were devoid of any emotion, yet they were more piercing than any accusation:

"Two of my subordinates died, their bodies were dragged away right in front of me, and to this day the murderer has not been found."

"I wanted to access surveillance footage from other departments, but you all passed the buck, saying I didn't have the necessary permissions and that I needed to follow the proper procedures."

"You say you're investigating the problem, but in reality you're all focused on power struggles, fighting for people and power. Even if there's a murderer within your ranks, you turn a blind eye. As long as it wasn't one of your people who died, it doesn't matter."

She paused for a few seconds, her voice low and hoarse, yet even more somber:
"I can't stay in a place like this."

“An Jing will no longer stay in the 404 Special Service Department.”

“She did nothing, yet you’ve tried every means to use her as a shield to extract profits from her. Your fear of her doesn’t stem from reason, but from the fact that she’s not under your control.”

"And the 404 Special Service Department."

She glanced at the section chief one last time, her voice no longer cold but completely indifferent: "It's been hollowed out by termites."

Everyone's expression changed drastically.

(End of this chapter)