62: Chapter 62 Limited Contact

Gu Xingzhou's report was quickly delivered to the higher authorities.

In the conference room, the projection screen simultaneously displayed data for the two cities of Qinghe and Jiangbei.

The number of anomalous events in Qinghe recently was far higher than in Jiangbei.

Nanliu Residential Complex, Old Goods Street, the West City Auction, the bus terminal, the wall lamp reverberation—almost any one of these, taken alone, would be enough to plunge an ordinary city into a long-term lockdown.

Yet, the casualty rate in Qinghe was shockingly low.

In contrast, look at Jiangbei.

The number of anomalous events was not high, but once they erupted, they often caused serious consequences.

In the Paper Sedan incident, the official lockdown was one step too slow, and the red thread remnants had already passed through three old buildings.

After the driverless night bus appeared, the memories of several witnesses began to overwrite each other, and even their statements became unstable.

In the end, all the data pointed to the same answer.

The difference was never the city.

It was whether Torch had intervened.

Someone in the conference room frowned.

"It could also just be a coincidence."

Gu Xingzhou did not refute this, merely switching to the next page.

An anomaly diffusion curve appeared on the screen.

Every time Qinghe's curve just started to rise, it would be cut off by some force.

Jiangbei's curve, on the other hand, was like a loose thread; once released, it would drag out a longer range of contamination.

"If it happens once, it's a coincidence; five times, and it's a variable."

Gu Xingzhou said.

"We don't need to trust them right now."

"But we cannot pretend they don't exist."

After several rounds of discussion, the higher authorities finally approved Gu Xingzhou's request to attempt to establish a channel for limited contact.

However, they also proposed four requirements.

Do not expose core official files.

Do not acknowledge Torch's legal status.

Do not allow Torch access to national-level secrets.

Confirm the boundaries of Torch's capabilities as much as possible.

Gu Xingzhou was not surprised by this.

After all, the two sides were still far from trusting each other.

He was even more aware that the real danger was not contact itself, but approaching with the intent to "research," "control," or "co-opt."

That night at the auction had already proven that the other party was not a civilian group that could be easily surrounded, interrogated, or dismantled.

A few days later, an abridged anomaly report was placed at the site of an old building in Qinghe.

A Fire Seal left by Torch had once appeared there.

The content of the report did not involve core secrets, but it was enough to express sincerity.

Jiangbei Paper Sedan remnants.

driverless night bus.

Linhai reverse elevator.

Overseas age-displacement experimental building.

And data comparing anomalies in Qinghe with other cities.

After the report folder was left, Gu Xingzhou did not arrange for anyone to ambush, nor did he place any anomalous objects nearby to test them.

He simply ordered his team to withdraw, leaving the scene to that fire.

That night, the Grey Net captured this information.

At the Fire Keeper seat, Lu Chen quietly flipped through the contents.

The authorities had deleted quite a few things.

But the deletions were very restrained.

At least the parts related to civilian casualties, anomaly diffusion, and failed cases in other regions had been kept.

After finishing, Lu Chen neither accepted cooperation nor refused contact.

He simply left a few words via the Grey Net.

The next morning, Gu Xingzhou received a response.

It was only four short lines.

＞ The order of ordinary people belongs to you.

＞ Anomalies belong to Torch to contain.

＞ Do not use living people to test anomalies.

＞ Do not research the Mark of the Torch.

Gu Xingzhou breathed a sigh of relief after reading it.

Because the other party was willing to communicate.

And the boundaries were clear.

This was more dangerous than silence, yet also more reliable.

A colleague nearby looked at the paper and asked in a low voice, "Does this count as cooperation?"

Gu Xingzhou shook his head.

"It doesn't."

"It just means they've agreed to let us not reach our hands into the fire."

The colleague fell silent.

Gu Xingzhou placed the note into a new file folder and added a new assessment to the end of the report.

[This organization is suspected to call itself Torch.]

[Possesses communication capabilities.]

[Possesses a strong sense of boundaries.]

[Forced co-option is not recommended.]

After the report was submitted, the higher authorities' approval returned quickly.

There was only one sentence.

＞ Continue contact, but do not cross the line.

Gu Xingzhou looked at those words, clearly understanding in his heart.

The truly difficult part was never the contact.

It was making everyone remember what it meant not to cross the line.

Not everyone within the official channels accepted this conclusion.

Some believed that the stronger Torch became, the greater the risk.

An organization that was uncontrolled, unregistered, and even possessed the ability to respond across cities was, in itself, a variable outside of order.

Others proposed that if Torch truly had the ability to stably contain anomalies, its principles must be figured out as soon as possible.

Upon hearing this, Gu Xingzhou weighed his tone for the first time.

"Figuring it out does not equal taking it apart."

The conference room fell silent.

He did not say anything harsher.

But everyone present understood that if they treated the Mark of the Torch as an experimental subject, or Torch members as samples to be dismantled, that would not be contact—it would be reaching out a hand toward a fire that had already proven it could manifest across cities.

Gu Xingzhou did not think that would end well.

He was more concerned about another matter.

Torch's boundaries were very clear.

It did not take over ordinary order, did not manage society on behalf of the authorities, and did not make any demands for real-world power.

The only thing it emphasized was that anomalies belonged to it to contain, and it did not allow the authorities to use ordinary people to test anomalies.

This was very tough.

But it was also very stable.

For Gu Xingzhou, stability was more important than friendliness.

At the same time, inside Xinhuo Hall, Lu Chen was also re-evaluating the authorities.

The authorities were not the Longevity Society.

The Longevity Society packaged anomalies as commodities and treated human lives as experimental Materials.

The authorities would lockdown, would test, would be conservative, but at least in most situations, they still took the order of ordinary people as their core.

This meant that there could be cooperation between the two sides with clear boundaries.

Lu Chen would not hand over the Core of the Torch to the authorities.

Nor would he let the authorities bypass the Torch system to contact high-risk anomalies.

But he could accept low-level information exchange.

For example, anomaly reports.

For example, evacuation coordination.

For example, not letting uninvolved crowds enter contamination sites.

This was not a compromise.

It was letting the reality order and the Torch order each hold the positions they should hold.

Lu Chen ultimately did not write the word "cooperation" in his response.

That was too early.

Cooperation meant that both sides' rules could mutually acknowledge each other, and right now, the authorities still wanted to confirm Torch's boundaries, and Torch could not yet fully judge whether there would be anyone within the authorities coveting anomalous power.

So this time, it could only be called contact.

The value of contact did not lie in immediately solving problems, but in letting both sides know that the other was not a completely incommunicable monster.

Gu Xingzhou understood this point.

Lu Chen understood it too.

Thus, neither side pushed the door wide open; they merely left a lamp in the crack of the door that would not immediately go out.