235: conversation

The smoke of battle had not yet cleared from the tidal flats; the smell of char and blood stubbornly clung to the air, heavy like rust when inhaled into the lungs.

Soldiers silently began to clear the battlefield, carrying away the bodies of their comrades, delivering finishing shots to un-dead Strange Beast; everything proceeded in an orderly fashion.

For Lu Chuan, this battle to defend the Demon City, in which he had inadvertently intervened, ended with a satisfactory outcome for most people.

However, his gaze drifted over the busy crowd, lingering on the slowly mending, yet still shocking, black crack in the sky.

He Jingrui… he probably wasn't coming back.

This thought, like a cold needle, pierced his heart.

Then, an indescribable urge welled up, driving him to want to see what was on the other side of the crack, at least… His foot had just lifted when a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Comrade!"

A communications soldier, his face smudged with gunpowder, ran over quickly.

"The higher-ups request your immediate presence."

It's here.

Lu Chuan's heart tightened slightly, but then he relaxed.

He Jingrui's death and resurrection were closely related to him, and his almost absurd cooking behavior on the battlefield, along with its remarkable effects, was an anomaly that could not be concealed from public view.

As long as the higher-ups weren't fools, they would certainly seek him out.

He took a deep breath of the scorched air, quickly suppressed all emotions, motioned to Ding Xinyang not to worry, and then nodded to the communications soldier.

"Lead the way."

All under heaven strive for gain.

He was mentally prepared and had anticipated several coping strategies.

As long as the value he demonstrated was great enough, this meeting with the official authorities might not be a disaster.

The communications soldier led him to a nondescript, military-camouflaged large command vehicle about a kilometer away.

The area around the vehicle was heavily guarded, and the atmosphere was tense.

Unlike the heavily guarded interrogation rooms or high-level conference rooms he had imagined, the interior of the vehicle had been converted into a mobile command and data analysis center, with complex data and battlefield residual images flowing across the screens.

A young man in a white lab coat and gold-rimmed glasses stood with his back to the door, intently looking at a tablet.

Hearing the movement, he turned around.

Lu Chuan was a little surprised; he hadn't expected the so-called "higher-up" to be so young, with a cold demeanor, more like a scholar.

"Sit."

Ye Chen raised his chin, pointing to a nearby chair, his tone as flat as if he were instructing an assistant to hand him a beaker in a laboratory, with no extra expression on his face, only the sharp gaze behind his glasses that seemed to penetrate one's heart.

Lu Chuan sat down as instructed, not speaking first, just calmly returning the other's gaze.

Only the low hum of instruments remained in the vehicle.

Ye Chen seemed unconcerned by the brief silence; he adjusted his glasses and spoke directly, his voice without the slightest fluctuation.

"This battle in Demon City, on the surface, was an invasion by Strange Beast, but in reality, it was a transaction between the island nation and the creature from beyond the crack that calls herself the Chimera Ant Queen. One wanted this land, the other needed a large amount of life energy and fear to accelerate the hatching and arrival of her main nest."

Lu Chuan's heart was shaken, but his face remained impassive.

The other party immediately threw out such core secrets; this was… Ye Chen continued in that same flat, factual tone:

"The special operations team's decapitation operation was the obvious line, and also the bait. We needed someone to rush to the main nest at all costs to force that elusive Ant Queen to show herself. She is very cautious, only using secondary nests as bait, her true body always hidden elsewhere. She will only appear when she is certain the threat is great enough and confident she can easily eliminate it."

"He Jingrui and the others…"

Lu Chuan's voice was a little dry.

"They fulfilled their mission, and they did it better than expected."

Ye Chen's tone showed no praise or criticism, as if he were evaluating a set of experimental data.

"Especially He Jingrui, his outburst greatly shortened the Ant Queen's appearance window, creating excellent conditions for Hu Xuan's final harvest."

When Lu Chuan heard this, his grief intensified, but because he heard the keywords, he still couldn't help but ask:

"Hu Xuan? Old Dean?"

"Hmm."

Ye Chen responded faintly.

"His Soul-Devouring Black Shadow is a natural nemesis for this type of spiritual entity aggregation creature. Having him perform the final clearance is the most efficient and lowest-risk approach."

Lu Chuan instantly connected many clues.

"So, you already knew about me? And also knew… that Gourmet Food might be effective for Gao Lingfeng and the others?"

"Hu Xuan mentioned that the food you cooked was very special. And I had done modeling analysis on the correlation between the activity of hongjun particles—which you call Gourmet Cells—and emotions and energy intake."

Ye Chen looked up at him, a cold glint flashing in his glasses.

"According to Hu Xuan's verbal account, and a series of subsequent data, only food containing an extreme level of 'deliciousness' could neutralize that deep-seated violent factor. And the skill of state banquet chefs, after all, was still a bit lacking."

He paused, his tone still as flat as if reading an instruction manual.

"The command center had already prepared the highest quality ingredients and equipment, just waiting for you to proactively offer to cook."

A layer of fine cold sweat instantly broke out on Lu Chuan's back, and at the same time, a chill fermented in his heart.

It turned out that all his thoughts had been predicted by the other party.

Gritting his teeth, he asked back, unwillingly.

"You were so sure I would proactively offer?"

"It doesn't matter. If you hadn't offered proactively, at the most critical moment of the battle, I would have ordered the frontline commander to point a gun at your head and demand that you start cooking immediately."

When Ye Chen said this, his gaze showed no fluctuation.

"But I always believe that voluntary cooperation is more effective than coercion. After all, we may need long-term cooperation in the future."

Before Lu Chuan could process that sentence, Ye Chen, without any change in his tone, threw out the next plan.

"The New Human project is about to be fully relaunched. Once the special forces soldiers recover from their injuries, safe Gourmet Cells activation trials will be prioritized. At that time, we will need you to provide critical dietary support."

After saying this, his gaze was calm but carried an undeniable weight.

"Perhaps, you will also be invited to join the reorganized special operations team as special logistics personnel to enter the crack and carry out operations."

Lu Chuan's heart skipped a beat; this abrupt planning and the massive amount of information made it difficult for him to adapt for a moment.

He subconsciously furrowed his brow, showing a troubled expression.

"Enter the crack? This… I am not a combatant, and besides, I still have to set up my stall every week…"

This was not an excuse, but his most genuine concern at the moment and… a little subconscious evasion and probing.

He needed to figure out the other party's bottom line and intentions.

For the first time, an extremely subtle change in expression appeared on Ye Chen's face.