Wasteland Border Inspector

Chapter 247: Transcendent Path, Subordinate in Place!

Bizarre and dazzling sensations surged from all directions, as if he were plummeting down a space-time tunnel.His consciousness drifted through a void-like dimension, ethereal yet instinctively searching for a connection back to his physical body.

It was not until a faint tactile sensation reached his fingertips that Cheng Ye snapped back to reality and abruptly opened his eyes.

A slightly dim, yellowish light from outside the window fell across the lower half of his hospital bed. Judging by the sky, it had to be evening.

'Huh, was I only out for three or four hours?'

"Inspector Cheng, you're awake!" A medical staff member's voice sounded from beside him. Cheng Ye turned his head and tried to prop himself up, only to find his arms bristling with IV needles.

Both arms were hooked up to four bottles of intravenous fluids each, with various colored motes of light faintly glowing within the liquids.

"What is all this? Why did you turn me into a pincushion?"

Cheng Ye was thoroughly bewildered. Were they simply treating him like a medicine vat?

"You have been unconscious for five days. These medications are necessary to maintain your basic nutrition and repair your body," the young nurse hurriedly explained.

"What? Five days?"

Cheng Ye drew in a sharp breath. "What's today's date?"

"Yes, you passed out right after you finished running. It is currently August 28th."

'The 28th?'

'If I calculate it like that, counting the half-day before I fell into a coma, I've been out cold for a full six days?!'

Cheng Ye instantly felt a wave of disarray. Twenty-six days had passed since he received the second round of his contract management assessment.

It had been nearly a month, and he had wasted eleven days just recovering from injuries at Revival Medical.

Although his recovery speed was absurdly fast compared to the standard healing cycle for an A-minus tier Infection Source, to Inspector Cheng—who always raced against the clock—this felt like an endlessly long vacation.

Factoring in the time since he transmigrated to this wasteland, nearly half a year had somehow slipped by.

'Half a year...'

Cheng Ye lay there quietly until Cui Qiao pushed the door open. Only after she dismissed the young nurse did his eyes regain their focus.

"Is the cost really this severe?"

"The cost itself is indeed formidable. These medium and high-intensity regimens are calculated based on your physical constitution. However, the bigger issue is that your body was pushed to its absolute limits. After running two thousand kilometers, you immediately engaged in a fifty-kilometer high-intensity exercise. You were already severely overdrawn, and the combination of the two nearly caused your body to collapse."

Cui Qiao spoke softly, "However, there seems to be a special energy sustaining you from within. An Elder visited while you were unconscious. He asked me to tell you..."

Before she could finish, she suddenly froze, as if her mind had jammed.

In the very next second, Elder Qian's voice echoed in the room without warning, transmitting clearly into Cheng Ye's ears.

"This path is a thoroughfare, the only known route for humanity with the potential to reach the very end. Symbiosis, at its core, is the exchange of life forms with an Infection Source. The stronger the Infection Source, as long as it doesn't stop growing, the further your destination lies. However, the human body cannot withstand the cost of morphological transformation during symbiosis; it requires unimaginable resources to protect and sustain it."

"If you had been born thirty years earlier, Happiness City would still have retained resources from the previous era to support you, potentially allowing you to reach our current level. But now, those resources are nearly exhausted. We have also strayed onto the wrong path over the years. We lack the technology of the Natural Village Shelter City to artificially accelerate the growth of treasures to maintain life forms. Therefore... do not use this power again. Treat it as if you never possessed it."

"After returning to the Inner City, go to the Research Institute and find Yu Erlan. Have her extract three treasures for you from the Idealist Faction's quota. These treasures will allow you to use the power of the Earth-Shrinking Giant Louse three times without suffering the backlash of the cost."

After those three sentences, Elder Qian's voice dissipated completely.

Cui Qiao's expression instantly regained its vitality, as if the momentary freeze had never happened. She smoothly picked up right where she had left off, "...that you must be extremely cautious when using the power of the Infection Source."

'What kind of method is this?'

'Have the Elders also mastered a power similar to Immortal Objects that can influence human mental states?'

Cheng Ye was briefly stunned, but his mind rapidly processed Elder Qian's words.

'Symbiosis with an Infection Source is actually the only thoroughfare for humanity to reach the end?'

'Symbiosis...'

'Is this what symbiosis really means?'

Cheng Ye suddenly realized the truth. Did the so-called Symbiotic State actually mean that a human's life form was converging with that of a Transcendent Creature?

'If one reaches the very end, wouldn't they end up like Tan Ming—no longer human, but a Transcendent Creature?'

'But Transcendent Creatures can still be attacked by evolved viruses. That can hardly be called a thoroughfare.'

'And what role does Belief play in this entire process?'

'What path have the ten Elders of Happiness City taken that allows them to remain fearless in the face of the next viral strike?'

Countless questions welled up within him, but Cheng Ye had no answers. He could only bury these thoughts deep in his heart for now.

At his current level, it was far too early to be privy to such information. With limited time and power, he couldn't possibly deduce the truth from a mere handful of words.

'Furthermore, according to Elder Qian's second statement, it takes the support of countless resources just to have a chance of reaching the heights the Elders currently stand at?'

'That is truly... horrifyingly demanding!'

Additionally, although Happiness City had strayed off course over the years, the Natural Village Shelter City was a Super Shelter City on par with Torch, a true hegemon of the southern hemisphere. To think they were researching artificial treasure growth just to clear this path.

'I have the Collector. I can generate treasures by extracting traits, which means my method and the Natural Village Shelter City's approach achieve the same goal through different paths. But my guess was spot on: Happiness City's resources only deplete without being replenished. Sustaining the ten Elders and the City Lord is likely their absolute limit. They simply cannot afford to distribute treasures to their subordinates to cultivate more experts. Their reserves must truly be nearing exhaustion now.'

'And the Elders have no way to venture out and search for more treasures themselves. They have to rely on their subordinates to do the scavenging, even depending on non-transcendent Inspectors to maintain the normal operations of the shelter city. They are truly restricted by their own immense power.'

Cheng Ye couldn't help but sigh inwardly. 'Elder Qian gave me three treasures, but he probably doesn't know that I've already burned through four portions of Living Water Essence just to survive these past few days.'

Amidst his churning thoughts, he forced himself to stop. Now was not the time to fret about the future of Happiness City.

If the sky fell, the tall ones would hold it up.

Even if they had taken the wrong path, Happiness City remained the undisputed hegemon of Shi Province. No one would dare provoke them lightly.

Take Leaping Wilderness, for example. If the city wanted to wipe it out, it would be gone in a flash; there was no need for prolonged entanglement.

Moreover, asking him to give up the Earth-Shrinking Giant Louse and abandon his Transcendent Power was absolutely impossible. Tan Ming hadn't even navigated his own path of Belief successfully. Even if Cheng Ye managed to cross this immediate hurdle, there was no guarantee he wouldn't face new difficulties later.

Symbiosis with an Infection Source and transcendence was the only thoroughfare. Only by walking down this path could he attain true power.

As for the pain brought on by the cost...

If one Iron Physique wasn't enough, he would hunt down more Iron Physiques for Skill Fusion. There had to be a way to isolate the pain completely.

Even if Happiness City only had one Dai Zun, what about other shelter cities? Out in the vast Wilderness, who knew how many individuals possessed pain immunity capabilities?

There was also his Zeye Physique. Its baseline strength alone was far from sufficient. He needed to find more physique-type skills to fuse and stack his base stats even higher.

As he gained the ability to harness more energy, his plan to mass-fuse basic Lv1 Skills could finally be put on the agenda. By slowly accumulating them, he would undoubtedly travel much further down this path of symbiosis.

Having finalized his thoughts, Cheng Ye snapped back to the present and turned his head to ask, "Where's Wang Kang?"

"Inspector Wang was discharged two days ago. Because you were unconscious, we didn't dare disclose the actual situation. We simply informed him that you were undergoing classified deep treatment. He specifically left a message for you to find him at the usual spot in Happiness Garden once you're discharged."

"Alright, thank you for your trouble."

Cheng Ye asked no further questions, quietly waiting for the final eight IV bottles to finish dripping.

By the time Cui Qiao helped remove his needles, the sky outside the window had completely darkened, bearing a striking resemblance to the scene from over ten days ago when he first entered the Revival Medical facility.

He got up, took a shower, and changed into his own clothes. He didn't want to stay in this place for a single second longer.

Even with hundreds of people offering round-the-clock care, even if this was one of the safest zones in the wasteland on par with Xingui Mountain, and even though relying on the cost of the Earth-Shrinking Giant Louse and Living Water Essence could rapidly boost his strength, none of it could quell his desire to leave.

He only had two unconverted portions of Living Water Essence left. Moreover, here, he had no way to massively recharge the Collector, nor could he trigger its search function.

Now that the backlash of the cost had completely passed, his mind was entirely consumed with returning to Dabo Town to quickly repair the small hydroelectric station and charge the Collector.

The days without being able to secretly siphon... err, charge power were simply sheer torture!

"Inspector Cheng, are you... discharging yourself?" Cui Qiao paused, completely taken aback by Cheng Ye's swift decisiveness.

Most people who came to Revival Medical wished they could stay for three to five months, only leaving reluctantly when they received a mandatory discharge notice.

Yet Cheng Ye was quite the opposite. The moment he woke up, he was eager to dress and leave, acting as if spending another second here was pure agony.

"Yes, please arrange it for me. I'm leaving today."

Cheng Ye walked into the living room, glanced around, and added, "Also, please pack up all these books, documents, and equipment for me."

"Rest assured, once your discharge procedures are complete, a dedicated staff member will deliver your belongings to your residence."

"Good!" Cheng Ye nodded, following Cui Qiao down to the first floor to process the paperwork.

The first item handed to him was the bill.

Although he didn't have to spend a single dime himself, the printed receipt—as thick as a small booklet—still left him dumbfounded.

Cheng Ye flipped straight to the final page and felt his knees go a bit weak.

"Hold on, I only stayed for eleven days, and it cost... one hundred and thirty thousand Contribution Points? Did you calculate this wrong?"

"Every single medication, supplement, and piece of equipment consumable you used is meticulously recorded on there."

Cui Qiao hurriedly explained, "The primary expense was the high-potency analgesic injection. It was imported from a shelter city subordinate to the Kindling Alliance, and its base cost alone is fifty thousand points. Additionally, the IV fluids you received over these past few days cost over two hundred points per bottle. You used a total of two hundred and seventeen bottles. Those two items alone amount to one hundred and two thousand, seven hundred points."

"Furthermore, in addition to your regular meals, you had to drink twenty red pouches of nutrient paste daily as supplementary food. Each pouch is one hundred and fifty Contribution Points, totaling eighteen thousand points."

'Good lord, that's already over one hundred and twenty thousand points?'

Cheng Ye couldn't help but click his tongue in shock. He secretly rejoiced that this wasn't coming out of the Inspection Station's budget, otherwise the station would have instantly gone bankrupt.

"Alright then, no problem."

He stopped agonizing over it and signed his name with a flourish.

After signing the bill, he was handed over a dozen pages of medical condition disclosures.

Cheng Ye didn't even bother reading them closely. He skimmed them just enough to confirm there were no restrictive clauses like "forcing him to pay out of pocket," and slapped his signature on them.

Finally, Cui Qiao handed him a stack of vouchers. Each one displayed a face value of "10,000 Points."

"The Elder left instructions that this is part of your reward for accepting next year's mission. There are twenty vouchers in total, amounting to two hundred thousand Contribution Points, which can be used to exchange for resources at Revival Medical. Not only can you use them yourself, but you can also transfer them to your subordinates to grant them treatment access."

"I can transfer them even to people without Inner City qualifications?" Cheng Ye asked instinctively, before immediately shaking his own head.

It only cost a thousand points to enter the Inner City. In the face of a ten-thousand-point voucher, that restriction was trivial.

Besides, Dai Zun wasn't from the Inner City either, yet he was still brought in for treatment. Clearly, qualifications weren't the deciding factor.

"How do I use these vouchers?"

"You just need to tap them against your Defense Terminal to activate them. When you want to transfer them, simply operate through the system," Cui Qiao demonstrated.

Following her instructions, Cheng Ye took a voucher and tapped it against the sensor area of his Defense Terminal.

The screen flashed momentarily, and a dark blue "Revival Medical" icon appeared on the interface.

He tapped it open. Inside, there were only three buttons: Treatment Application, Emergency Treatment, and at the very bottom, Transfer to Others.

Twenty vouchers equated to two hundred thousand Contribution Points. He hadn't even officially taken up the post of Station Master of Leaping Wilderness yet, but the reward had already hit his account in advance.

'Awesome!'

Cheng Ye felt a thrill of satisfaction. In the future, if any of his people got injured, he wouldn't have to worry about lacking the means to send them to Revival Medical.

"Where is Luo Kuke?"

"Inspector Luo is still recuperating. Once his vital signs stabilize, he will undergo transplant surgery for metal prosthetics."

"He was amputated?" Cheng Ye's expression faltered slightly.

"Yes."

"Alright then, I need to go see him."

Cheng Ye grabbed his coat and strode casually out the door.

A gentle breeze happened to drift by. He instinctively touched the top of his head. His hair had already grown back. Although it was just a layer of a buzz cut, glancing in the mirror near the entrance, it made him look exceptionally energetic.

Furthermore, after the nourishment of the Living Water Essence and the modifications from the Earth-Shrinking Giant Louse, his physique had become increasingly exaggerated!

His entire frame had completely transcended the realm of merely "lean and muscular" and transitioned into absolute brawn.

Originally standing a bit over 1.8 meters, his secondary skeletal development had pushed him up to 1.9 meters. His arm girth stretched his short sleeves to their absolute limit, with clearly defined muscle fibers exuding an explosive sense of power.

Having spent consecutive days in the underground facility, the dark tan he had acquired in Dabo Town had also faded into a healthy wheatish complexion.

Cheng Ye raised a hand to touch his chest; the two pectoral muscles, hard as solid rock, felt somewhat alien to him.

'Am I really this jacked?'

He couldn't help but chuckle. He was now a literal human weapon, looking exactly like the special forces super-soldiers he used to see on TV before his transmigration. Even compared to Liu Bi, he was only slightly lacking in height.

His former frail, scholarly aura had completely vanished, replaced by the authentic, imposing presence of a wasteland elite.

"Not bad at all. I like this feeling."

Cheng Ye turned around and took a large stride forward, but suddenly realized something was different.

To his surprise, after being comatose for six days, his Power Control had recovered significantly.

While it wasn't quite at his previous level of fluidity, he would at least no longer experience easy lapses of strength.

Upon reaching Building 2, the on-duty medical staff at the entrance recognized him at a single glance.

Or rather, following his sleepless, relentless marathon, there wasn't a single soul in Revival Medical who didn't recognize Inspector Cheng.

"Inspector Cheng, right this way, please. Inspector Luo's ward is on the sixth floor."

Cheng Ye gave a slight nod.

Different floors corresponded to different statuses.

And the lower the floor, the more rooms there were on each level.

His top-floor suite only shared the level with one other room, whereas Luo Kuke's sixth floor contained a full six rooms.

Still, every room was standardized as a three-bedroom, two-living-room layout, which was considerably more spacious than any clinic outside.

Luo Kuke had already received word of his arrival and was pulling himself along in a wheelchair, waiting for him by the elevator.

"Are you fully recovered?" Seeing Cheng Ye's ruddy complexion and upright posture, Luo Kuke couldn't hide the envy in his tone.

"I'm doing alright, just about." Cheng Ye smiled as he pushed the wheelchair back into Room 6002.

The room's floor was littered with sunflower seed shells. The sound of an audiobook drifted from the speakers, while an old-world movie played on the television.

"I never took you for having these kinds of hobbies."

"It's not really a hobby. It's just that the rest of my life is practically ruined; I have to find something to pass the time." Luo Kuke shook his head with a bitter smile. "Even with prosthetic legs, I won't be able to go on field missions anymore. There's a high chance I'll just be retiring at a checkpoint."

"In that case, the Inspectors on duty will have a seasoned Phase Three veteran holding the fort. It'll be safe as houses!"

Cheng Ye purposely teased in a lighthearted tone, wanting to dilute the man's gloominess.

Unexpectedly, Luo Kuke seemed to have come to terms with it over the past few days and wasn't as depressed as one might think. "I've gained some new insights. From now on, I'll be dedicating my path toward achieving Heaven and Man in One and solidifying my Belief."

He paused before shifting the topic. "Also, I want to discuss something with you, though I'm not sure if you'd be willing."

Cheng Ye didn't rush to reply. His Power Control had indeed recovered; the apple danced nimbly in his hands, its peel rapidly stripping away in a continuous ribbon.

Crunch.

He took a bite of the apple, grabbed another to peel for Luo Kuke, and only after the man accepted the fruit did he nod.

"Spit it out. What is it?"

"You'll definitely be doing frequent field work from now on. Even when you return, wasting your time managing the station would be a shame. The Dabo Town Inspection Station requires two people on rotation. Rather than finding someone else, how about you let me do it? Even though I've lost my legs, sitting there and handling the duties is absolutely no problem for me," Luo Kuke offered, his tone utterly sincere.

Cheng Ye was slightly taken aback. Staring at the man's completely unfeigned expression, he shot back, "Are you serious? That's basically defecting!"

"It's not defecting. I've always been Station Master Ding's man; he was the one who nurtured and discovered me."

Luo Kuke smiled. "Going to Dabo Town this time was actually Station Master Ding's arrangement to help elevate your status. Who would have thought you'd accomplish it so brilliantly on your own, making all those plans fall through."

"What about Garcia?"

"The original intent was to clear out your only obstacle before you rose to power. Unfortunately, an accident still occurred," Luo Kuke admitted candidly.

"Why is Old Ding treating me so well?" Cheng Ye took a massive bite of his apple, his tone devoid of any readable emotion.

"Heh, that's a question you, as a member of the 'Cheng family,' will have to find the answer to yourself."

Luo Kuke also bit into his apple, deliberately emphasizing the words 'Cheng family' with clear implication.

"Fair enough. Once you're discharged, I'll lead a team in Dabo Town to welcome Inspector Luo to inspect our work."

Cheng Ye's face remained largely impassive. With a casual toss, he landed his apple core perfectly into the trash can. "Perfect timing. I was originally going to look for a Phase One Inspector as a partner, but with you around, I can rest much easier."

"Why settle for Phase One? Me, a Phase Three, is more than enough!"

Luo Kuke nodded immediately, the heavy burden that had been hanging over his heart for days finally lifting.

After much thought, he had realized the only way to attach himself to Cheng Ye now was to take a position at the Dabo Town Inspection Station.

Even if outsiders viewed it as 'banishment,' so what?

A hidden dragon in the abyss must wait for the right moment to act.

Whether it was the sheer power Cheng Ye displayed while containing the Immortal Object or the formidable intellect he revealed during the process, Luo Kuke could conclude one thing with absolute certainty: as long as Cheng Ye survived, absolutely no one among his peers could ever contest him for the position of a future Station Master.

In the ensuing silence, Cheng Ye stood up, grabbed the broom leaning against the wall, and began sweeping up the floor full of sunflower seed shells.

Once the trash was swept into the dustpan, he suddenly spoke up. "Inspector Luo, once the construction in Dabo Town is complete, I'd like you to settle your home there too. Does that work for you?"

Luo Kuke's heart tightened, but he replied almost without a second of hesitation, "Not a problem. From now on, I, Luo Kuke, am a man of Dabo Town. Where my home goes, I go!"

"Excellent!"