Then let the witch offer her loyalty

Luo Lingyou pondered for a moment with suspicion, then narrowed his eyes slightly, as if he had figured something out, and quickly revealed a self-righteous expression.

"Oh yeah, that's right, he's my lackey."

At this moment, Yang Jie's disgust for Chen Moxin reached its peak.

He could practically picture that scene in his mind—

With his shifty eyes, Chen Moxin followed Luo Lingyou around, meek and obsequious, but when he saw others, he was smug and arrogant.

No matter what Luo Lingyou did, he would chime in with a shrill voice, "Boss Lingyou is so funny!"

Disgusting! Ugh, disgusting!

Yang Jie scoffed at this kind of thing even more, and said with disdain, "Did you come here this time to put in a good word for him and get the examiner to go easy on you?"

"Let me tell you, I can't control what others do, but if their 7th squad picks me, I absolutely will not give them any special treatment."

Luo Lingyou shook his head and said, "No, Uncle Yang, you've misunderstood."

"Not only do I not want to speak up for Chen Moxin, quite the opposite is true—if he really goes against you, you must go all out and fight him to the death."

This answer surprised Yang Jie.

He had assumed that Luo Lingyou was there to look after his lackeys.

The result was that he was told to increase his efforts?

"...What's wrong between you and Chen Moxin?"

"No."

"Then why did you say that?"

“Because…” Luo Lingyou blinked, seemingly playful yet serious, “If you don’t give it your all, I’m afraid he’ll play you to death.”

Yang Jie's facial muscles twitched visibly, and he laughed angrily: "That's none of your concern, judge. I won't slack off even if you don't tell me."

"You'd better start thinking about what kind of way you'll arrange for your lackey to escape if he loses this time."

escape route...

Upon hearing those two words, Luo Lingyou fell silent for some reason, looking out the window in quiet contemplation.

There is no way out.

He didn't, and neither did I.

If that person's abilities are limited to this level, and they can't even pass this test, it only proves that you misjudged them.

Then, we'll have to go back to that stagnant life we ​​had before.

Chapter 77 Hunter's Skills

(Two chapters combined into one)

The morning light cut through the indigo sky like scissors, the clouds on the edge of the city still stained with the ink of the night, while the masses of people had already awakened from their slumber.

Before dawn, vendors set up their breakfast carts and headed out. They skillfully put up sunshades and set up their stoves, filling the morning air with the aroma of various breakfasts.

Pedestrians hurried along, early morning workers looked down at their phones, students in school uniforms ran by in groups of three or five, and long lines of cars formed on the roads during the morning rush hour, with horns blaring in a chorus that created a unique melody for the big city.

For ordinary people in the Twin Cities, today is just another ordinary day, like countless other days and nights.

But these ordinary people living in the sunlight are unaware that, on the other side of this city, unseen by most, undercurrents are surging.

Last night, 15 active witch hunters infiltrated different corners of the Twin Cities. They will imitate the criminals they have encountered before, posing as illegal psychics to operate in the city.

Meanwhile, 15 special training teams playing the role of law enforcement officers took their positions. They needed to analyze and deduce existing intelligence, formulate combat plans, and arrest illegal psionicists, just like real witch hunters when they solve cases.

Aside from not killing or maiming the opponent and not endangering public safety, there are no other rules in principle. The trainees will maximize their abilities in an environment that is infinitely close to real combat, and give a report card for the four-month special training.

[Regarding the 3th Squad]

Team 3 is a team with a very high ranking, and its members are of excellent quality. They have achieved very good results in previous training and tests.

Their team's goal this time is not only to pass the final test, but also to be among the first to complete the mission, gain a large number of points, and then obtain the "priority access" to high-level witches after officially becoming hunters.

At this moment, Lu Renjia, the leader of the 3rd squad, was meeting with two companions at the Administration Bureau to review relevant intelligence on the target of this arrest.

Whether it's apprehending ordinary fugitives or illegal psychics, intelligence is of paramount importance.

First, you need to know the other party's physical characteristics, when they were last seen, where they were seen, and whether they are carrying weapons.

To capture illegal psychics, one essential step is to analyze the psychic abilities they possess.

Unlike video games, in reality, there isn't a panel that tells you exactly what the effects of psychic powers are.

Therefore, not only outsiders, but even the psionicists themselves are not always absolutely accurate in their perception of their own abilities.

They need to release it repeatedly to figure out the conditions for activating psionic energy, its range, specific effects, and so on.

The same principle applies to law enforcement officers within the administration.

When they learn about the abilities of illegal psychics, they don't have a so-called instruction manual that tells you what the other person's psychic abilities are like.

They can only deduce the other party's capabilities as much as possible by analyzing various details in the relevant cases before formulating an arrest plan.

This is the most basic, yet also the most difficult step.

Often, it is precisely because of a deviation in this first step of reasoning that law enforcement officers underestimate or misjudge the power of illegal psychics, leading to a complete failure in subsequent arrest plans.

One step wrong, step by step wrong.

If you're lucky, you might be able to retreat and start over.

If you're unlucky, you might die in the line of duty.

At this moment, what was presented to the three members of the third squad was a document about "Ji Chen," an illegal psychic.

Ji Chen was the examiner for their team. The man in the intelligence photos was different from the real man they saw in the training camp; he was wearing a bionic mask that altered his appearance.

This is for the sake of confidentiality.

After all, this test is in a real environment, with the test location set directly inside the Twin Cities. The confrontation process will inevitably be witnessed by ordinary people, so it is necessary to take some confidentiality measures.

After reviewing the intelligence, the members of the 3rd squad began to summarize, led by their captain Lu Renjia: "Our target is named Ji Chen, 25 years old, 178cm tall, 63kg, with a slender and lean build."

"The most recent sighting was at 6:21 a.m. today, when surveillance footage showed him at a convenience store at No. 28 Sai'an Road. He was also filmed twice more, both times in the vicinity of Sai'an Road."

"Based on the analysis of past cases, it can be basically confirmed that Ji Chen's psychic ability is 'animal manipulation'."

"The target was employed by a border violence group to manipulate rodents into the courts to destroy evidence and evade charges for criminals."

"In previous manhunts, the target repeatedly used birds instead of drones for observation, escaped from encirclement nets, and even controlled police dogs to kill a law enforcement officer..."

After summarizing all the intelligence, Lu Renjia squinted and said, "For this arrest, we need to wear tactical goggles with biometric identification capabilities and pay special attention to the animals around us, as they are very likely being controlled by Ji Chen."

One of the team members pondered for a moment and shook his head, saying, "Relying solely on tactical goggles is too passive. We can only identify the animals around us, but we can't confirm whether they are under control."

"In fact, there are many animals in the city, including stray cats, stray dogs, rats in the sewers, sparrows flying in the sky... We can't possibly check them all."

"What are your thoughts?" Lu Renjia asked.

The team member's gaze turned sinister: "It's simple, indiscriminate extermination!"

"The fact that the target appeared multiple times around Sai'an Road indicates that it was very close to where he was hiding."

“I looked around and found only two or three habitable residential areas. So we focused on those areas and carried out indiscriminate extermination of all animals within a 5-kilometer radius.”

Another team member thought for a moment and asked, "Wild animals are fine, but what about domestic animals? Are we going to go door to door and kill all the pets in people's homes? That would cause chaos."

The team member shook his head: "Domestic animals certainly can't be killed directly, but we can get the community and street authorities to cooperate in creating a regulation that residents should not take their pets out recently, and the reason given is... animal plague."

"Yes, animal plague. Those residents certainly wouldn't dare risk their pets, which also explains why we're culling wild animals."

"With the wild animals gone and the pets locked up at home, Ji Chen has no animals to control, so his psychic powers are essentially useless!"

Lu Renjia's eyes lit up: "Great idea, let's do it! Let's immediately formulate a plan, report it to the bureau, and then take action as soon as possible."

"This time, we're sure to take the lead and be the first team to complete the final test!"

The third team's plan for animal extermination was quickly approved after being reported to the bureau.

It's actually quite simple to implement, and doesn't even require any high-precision equipment; ordinary municipal departments can handle it.

As long as you select some harmless chemical agents and spray them in the target area to kill them, cats, dogs, rats, birds, and even cockroaches will basically disappear.

Over the next three days, with the cooperation of the municipal authorities, the streets and communities around Sai'an Road implemented a strict animal control plan, citing the recent outbreak of veterinary plague.

Seeing truckloads of wild animal carcasses being transported out, the pet owners were terrified. They locked their doors and windows tightly, not daring to let their furry friends out of the house.

Once the animal variable was under control, the third team members began their operation.

Based on the intelligence they obtained, Lu Renjia and his group arrived at a residential area on Sai'an Street.

Three days prior, they had used surveillance equipment to trace back and deduced that the target, Ji Chen, was hiding in this residential area.

Lu Renjia looked around and saw residential buildings with red bricks and gray tiles. The house numbers were rusty and blurry. Several elderly men and women were sitting around a stone table, playing cards.

He said in a low voice, "Split up and search for the target. Once you find Ji Chen, don't rush to act; notify the others first."

"Although Ji Chen's psionic abilities are gone, as a witch hunter, he's still quite skilled. It's safer to attack him all at once rather than let him take us down one by one."

The three quickly dispersed in different directions.

In terms of the search and arrest, the preliminary procedures of the Administration Bureau and the Public Security Bureau are not much different. Both first locate the location using technical means, and then law enforcement officers conduct on-site visits.

The third team was also following standard procedures, with team members going out separately to interview residents in the community and investigate Ji Chen's whereabouts.

More than an hour later, the two team members' communicators rang, and Lu Renjia's voice came from the other end: "I've found the target. Assemble in the underground parking garage of Building 17 in Area A, quick."

The two team members immediately set off to meet up with Lu Renjia.

The underground parking garage was very empty, with only a few cars parked there. Lu Renjia was standing in front of a passageway.

He saw his two teammates arrive, signaled towards the passage, and then made a gesture that said, "You guys go in, I'll cover you."

The two team members immediately went into combat mode, drew their stun guns from their waists, and walked towards the passage, one on the left and one on the right.

They had just gone inside and hadn't even had time to search for their target when they suddenly heard a "snap" behind them.

One team member was hit in the back with a stun gun, and fell straight to the ground with a crackling sound of electricity.

The other team member was shocked and hurriedly looked back.

The one who fired the shot was none other than Lu Renjia!

"Hey! What are you doing?!"

Before the team member could react, a swift gust of wind struck him from behind, hitting him hard on the back of the neck with a "thud" and knocking him unconscious.

From the shadows, a figure emerged, removing the bionic mask from his face to reveal a roguishly handsome face.

"Young people these days are so healthy, they can fall asleep the moment their heads hit the pillow." Ji Chen nudged the student who had fallen to the ground with the tip of his shoe.

One of them was knocked down by a stun gun, and the other was knocked unconscious. They had long since fallen into a deep, infantile sleep, lying paralyzed and motionless.

Ji Chen yawned and snapped his fingers at Lu Renjia, who was not far away, causing invisible ripples to spread out.

Lu Renjia, who had been calm just moments before, suddenly snapped out of his daze, shivering and looking at Ji Chen in astonishment: "You..."

He had absolutely no idea why he was there!

He only remembered that he had been visiting residents in the community, and then his memory went blank. One second he was talking to the residents, and the next he saw Ji Chen and two teammates lying on the ground in front of him.

Lu Renjia tried to retreat, but found that even though he was conscious, he couldn't move his body at all.

"You...what did you do to me?!"

Ji Chen looked at Lu Renjia with a bored expression and drooped his eyes, saying helplessly, "Tsk, you're so stupid. The situation is like this, and you still haven't realized it?"

"You've probably deduced from the intelligence that my psychic ability is 'animal control.'"

"Here's a fun fact for you—humans are animals too."

In an instant, Lu Renjia felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar, his hands and feet turning ice cold.

Ji Chen took the stun gun from an unconscious trainee and fiddled with it between his fingers.

"After you learned of my abilities, you used the pretext of an epidemic of animal plague to exterminate the animals in this neighborhood... This tactic is mediocre, nothing special, nothing original, but it's barely passable."

"But in other areas, your performance has been very disappointing, especially in intelligence interpretation."

"After reading about my cases, you only made a one-sided inference that I can only control animals in a narrow sense, such as cats, dogs, rats, and birds, and then you just kill the animals and jump right in..."

At this point, he pointed to the two team members: "If I really am an illegal psychic, congratulations, the three of you have already died a glorious death."