Tactics, Courage, and Grit

"That's all I know. If you have any other questions, Inspector..." "No more." Cheng Ye didn't press the guards at the gate any further—they were obviously at the bottom of the checkpoint's food chain. It wasn't out of sudden kindness; through their brief exchange, he had already deduced where his impending trouble would come from. Was it a big deal, though? To establish a foothold at a checkpoint, one didn't rely on having a powerful father, but on tactics, courage, and grit. In a sense, this place remained an extension of the wasteland, merely wrapped in a few protective rules. His fingertips brushed the Bison combat pistol at his waist, the icy metallic chill creeping from his palm up his arm. Looking up, he glanced at the dark embrasures along the wall. Noticing that the guard manning the machine gun was deliberately avoiding his gaze, Cheng Ye chuckled softly. "All right. They should be ready by now. Open the gate for me." "Ah... right, right away!" As if granted an amnesty, the tall guard took three steps in one, dashing back to the gate to swipe his card and verify his identity. *Thud.* The heavy blast door slowly pushed open from the inside. Once the opening was wide enough for three people to walk abreast, the scene inside became clear. It wasn't as high-tech as the Inner City; the overall aesthetic fit the old-era feel of the Buffer Zone. A straight main thoroughfare paved with dark-gray epoxy flooring stretched toward the far end of Zone E, where several outbound cargo trucks were undergoing inspection. On either side of the road, boxy workstations stood in neat rows. Their dark-green plastic-steel windows were half open, and acrylic electronic signs stood by the doors, red LED displays scrolling with labels such as *Records Office*, *Archives*, *Check-in Office*, *Inspection Station*, and *Disinfection Station*. Rain had poured all night, inundating the Buffer Zone, but there was hardly any standing water here. Several workers in blue overalls pushed squeegees back and forth. No sooner did the rain land than it was swept into the drainage ditches flanking the road, leaving behind only meandering damp tracks. "You can head straight to the check-in office. A staff member will register your inspector status for North Station." "Thank you." Spared from harassment and even thanked, the tall guard found it bizarre. When he had called himself a tool earlier, he hadn't been putting himself down—he was stating an established fact. After all, the wasteland had no room for freeloaders; to be treated as tools by an inspector was their privilege. Yet now, an odd sensation stirred in his chest. *It has to be my imagination. Why would an inspector ever treat us like human beings?* The heavy gate shut. Watching the silhouette blur in the curtain of rain, the tall guard shook off the absurd thought along with the rainwater. Yes, it had to be his imagination! ... Inside Zone E, Cheng Ye didn't rush to report in. Instead, he stood in place and surveyed his surroundings. Whether the staff bustling back and forth or the workers clearing water by the roadside, every single one had a Western face. An Eastern face like his stood out like a sore thumb here at North Station. Curiously, however, everyone acted as if they hadn't seen him at all, not casting a single stray glance in his direction. When he looked their way, they even dodged his gaze in alarm, as if he were a ravenous beast. *That afraid of me?* While surprised, Cheng Ye inwardly felt that his move had been the right one. Rather than heading to South Station for his first rotation, blundering through unspoken rules amid outward cordiality only to get shoved into a ditch and broken, he preferred coming straight to North Station, prepared from the outset to fight tooth and nail. Just like now: everyone knew this Eastern inspector was here to stir up trouble. Regular folk with no power to meddle in factional warfare naturally scrambled to distance themselves, terrified of being dragged down with him. And that left the remaining enemies instantly obvious. Twenty or thirty pairs of eyes stared out from the workstations along the road. Even when Cheng Ye met their stares, their gazes didn't flinch in the slightest, filled with amusement and disdain. In the few minutes since the guards sent word, they had already pulled up all of Cheng Ye's information, and along the way, pieced together why he had been reassigned to the fast quarantine post. Offended a West Faction inspector and still dared barge into North Checkpoint? Did he take Westerners for soft targets to be pushed around? Furthermore, while ordinary personnel just wanted to scrape together a living and feared crossing an inspector, they had no such fear. They were heirs set to inherit their fathers' inspector posts; why would any of them take seriously a snot-nosed kid whose father died early and who got promoted ahead of his time? Under the eerie atmosphere, Cheng Ye walked toward the check-in office. Workers along the road fled immediately, darting into the alleys between workstations. Meanwhile, the youths in the workstations tacitly opened their doors, gathering in twos and threes at the entrances to form a loose ring around Cheng Ye and the check-in office. "Hello. I'm a trainee inspector reporting for my first day at the fast checkpoint." Stepping up to the service window, Cheng Ye drew his identity badge. The check-in office was roughly twenty square meters. Behind the window sat a young man in his twenties. He had typical Western features, grayish-blue pupils with dark-red threads in the whites of his eyes, and greasy hair plastered against his forehead—clearly someone who had stayed up all night. "Do you know the rules of the fast checkpoint?" The young man sized Cheng Ye up and muttered under his breath, showing no intention of taking the badge. "No," Cheng Ye replied honestly, shaking his head. "I was previously interning at Central Main Checkpoint. This is my first time at a fast checkpoint, so I don't know what special rules there are." "Not knowing is fine." The young man stood up, unable to stifle a smirk. "Inspector Cheng, there's something you should know. Every trainee inspector who comes to report at the fast checkpoint must prove on day one that they're capable enough for the job." "And how do I prove that?" "Simple." The young man picked up several sheets of paper, stepped out of the office, and stood beside Cheng Ye, pointing into the distance. "See those outbound trucks waiting at the end of the lane? Yes, the third one. All the cargo declaration forms for that truck are right here. But during our inspection, we found several items that don't match the manifests." "Find three discrepancies, and you pass your intake evaluation." Following the direction the youth pointed, Cheng Ye narrowed his eyes. Six trucks were currently undergoing inspection. Five belonged to Westerners, but the third was driven by an Easterner. "That simple?" The youth blinked, then let out a faintly mocking grin. "That simple." They didn't dare harass Cheng Ye outside the rules, but within the rules, pitting Easterners against each other like dogs was far more amusing. "Pike, he's coming over. Have them close the truck." "Got it." Noticing Cheng Ye walking toward the vehicles, Pike, who was conducting the inspection, immediately tucked away the documents in his hand. "All right, sir. There's no issue with your cargo." "Really?" The nervous Eastern driver let out a huge sigh of relief. He usually moved goods through South Station, but after last night's torrential rain, the route from the suburbs to South Station was completely blocked, forcing him to clear customs here at North Station. These people had huge appetites; he had slipped them nearly two hundred Happiness Coins before they finally nodded approval. "Hold on..." Just as the driver was about to climb into the cab, Pike raised a hand. "Apologies, but a trainee inspector believes there's a problem with your cargo. Please step down and cooperate with a secondary inspection." "What?" Following the direction Pike pointed, the driver's face fell. Damn it. An Eastern inspector at North Checkpoint? What... what was going on? "S-Sir?" Facing Cheng Ye, the driver was visibly at a loss. Ordinarily, in a trivial matter like vehicle checks, one could make a hundred trips without encountering an inspector taking personal interest. At South Station it would have been manageable; after greasing palms for years, there were always familiar faces. But at North Station... If the contraband on his truck was discovered, he was a dead man! Every manufactured product smuggled out of Happiness City could fetch double or even triple the regular freight price. Because cargo manifests were filed when entering the city, the checkpoint took the lion's share of that profit margin while the drivers kept a fraction; everyone turned a blind eye and pretended nothing was amiss. Now, however, he was being intercepted before even getting out of the city. If contraband was exposed, the consequences would be catastrophic! "I received a report from the check-in office staff... Several items in your cargo don't match the declaration forms, so I came over to verify." "What?" The driver's face darkened instantly, his eyes darting toward Pike. To his dismay, Pike happened to look down right then, deliberately evading his questioning gaze. *Fine, fine. You take my money and then turn around and report me? You want me dead, is that it?* A flash of madness flickered in the driver's eyes, and even his look toward Cheng Ye took on a vicious edge. To his surprise, Cheng Ye smiled. "Don't be nervous. If I remember correctly, you're... Old Zhang from Autumn General Store in East Urban District, aren't you?" Cheng Ye fabricated a name on the spot, deliberately slowing his speech. "I bought a defense comm charger from you before. What, don't you remember me?" "A ch-charger?" The driver was taken aback. His surname was Bai, not Zhang, and he had never heard of any Autumn General Store in East Urban District. Yet hearing Cheng Ye say that, he suddenly caught on: there might still be a way out. With a chance at survival, his fury vanished, his eyes brightening as he hastened to play along. "Sir, how could Old Zhang ever forget you! I just never expected to see you on duty here at North Station!" "Heading out of town in such heavy rain? During the wet season, the roads around North Station are slick—it's not easy getting out. Why didn't you go through South Station?" Cheng Ye walked a circle around the vehicle, tapping the rubber tread of a tire with his foot. No petroleum was produced around Happiness City, so all the cargo trucks were electric battery vehicles. Their boxy, blunt-nosed frames closely resembled the old-era Jinbei vans. "Ah, to tell you the truth, Sir, I planned to take South Station last night since the route's shorter. But the rain poured all night, and the water in the city was too deep to drive through, so I had to make a detour through North Station." He was, after all, a shrewd operator who had run smuggling routes for years. As "Old Zhang" answered instinctively, his mind raced, analyzing the specific words Cheng Ye had deliberately stressed. To survive long in this trade, being observant wasn't enough; one needed quick wits when danger struck. *The roads around North Station are slick...* *North Station. Slick roads...* Extracting the key phrases, Old Zhang swallowed hard, instantly realizing what Cheng Ye was hinting at. And the follow-up—*it's not easy getting out*—had left room to maneuver, meaning there was still a way forward. As for *why didn't you go through South Station...* Well aware of the struggle between Easterners and Westerners at the checkpoints, Old Zhang's pupils contracted, and everything clicked into place. "Sir, you know Old Zhang, so you must know that I never break the law," Old Zhang said. "If any goods really don't match the manifest, they definitely aren't mine. It was a group that came by last night—they asked me to help haul some cargo out." "Oh? Who were they?" A sharp glint flashed in Cheng Ye's eyes, and a satisfied smile crept across his face, confirming Old Zhang's deductions. Gritting his teeth, Old Zhang turned straight toward Pike and said, "It's Camilo Luke from West Urban District, a worker at Wisteria Factory. He asked me to take some goods out to a settlement beyond the border, claiming it was an arrangement made beforehand." "Wisteria Factory..." A Western-run factory specializing in small manufactured goods. Pike's expression twisted, and he opened his mouth to intervene. To his surprise, Cheng Ye's expression hardened, cutting him off immediately. "Bring them out for me to see. I heard there were three items, weren't there? Maybe those are the ones with issues." "Right away, Sir. Just a moment." Swinging open the rear cargo doors of the van, Old Zhang moved deftly, pulling out three packages wrapped in black oilcloth. "Open them!" The corners of the oilcloth were peeled back, revealing colorful printed circuit boards—they were crammed with electronic components. "What audacity! These are industrial goods strictly prohibited from individual export by the Buffer Zone!" Cheng Ye put on a look of fury. "Does this Camilo Luke have a death wish? How dare he smuggle items like these out?" "All right, you're free to go. I will investigate this to the very bottom and see who has the gall to flout the Buffer Zone's rules so blatantly!" "Yes, of course, Sir!" Seeing Cheng Ye wave him off, Old Zhang's eyes lit up, thanking his lucky stars for sparing his life. Even though he had apparently gotten caught in the crossfire between East and West factions, he swore that next time, even if the sky fell, he would go through South Station. Even breaching a contract was better than this. To hell with this damned North Station and these motherless Westerners! The van roared to life, leaving behind the three oilcloth packages as its tires skidded across the wet pavement and sped away. Visibly, it wasn't just Pike whose face was sour; every Westerner watching from afar looked as though they had swallowed a dead fly. *That's it?* Lifting the oilcloth packages, Cheng Ye curled his lip. Children's games, truly naive. "Three items. Enough to prove my ability?" "You're... impressive." Taking the badge Cheng Ye handed over, the young man walked inside with a dark face, fingers flying over the keyboard to complete the intake procedure. The youths gathered outside the check-in office looked at one another, expressions filled with surprise and bewilderment, but even more so with the same suffocating frustration the young clerk felt. The anticipated dog-fight hadn't happened. Cheng Ye had effortlessly thrown his weight around, and the Eastern driver had played along to shift the blame, neatly slapping the hat back onto the Westerners' heads. "Jamie, don't tell me you're really going to process his intake that easily?" A voice came through his earpiece. Jamie, who was just about to hand the badge back to Cheng Ye, saw his face darken further. "Your uncle was beaten into the clinic by Liu Bi and is still in emergency care right now." "Shut up!" Jamie cursed under his breath, but as if possessed, his fingers lost their grip. The badge hit the ground with a sharp *clack*. Water rushed across the pavement. By the time he hurried outside, the badge had already spun along the current to the edge of the drainage ditch, wedged amid a pile of trash. "Good job! Humiliate him like that—make him dig through the garbage for it!" Laughter rang out in his earpiece. The crowd of youths gathered around didn't understand the accident and assumed Jamie was deliberately degrading Cheng Ye. Light applause broke out. Though initially flustered, Jamie felt malice surge when he saw their encouraging looks. "Inspector Cheng, you're the one who failed to catch it. You don't expect me to help you, do you?" "Oh, really?" Cheng Ye scratched his head and gave an honest smile. "No need. I'll pick it up myself." With that, he stepped down toward the ditch. Amid sneers and chuckles, he bent down, fished the badge out of the trash heap, and casually wiped it against his trouser leg. "Hahaha, what a coward!" "With guts like that, he dared come to our station?" "An inspector rummaging through the trash—now I've seen everything!" "..." Mockery rose on all sides. Though it caused Cheng Ye no real harm, they took immense pleasure in the psychological humiliation. Even Jamie wore a disdainful smirk, as though he had led a victory against the Easterners. "Hello. Intake complete." Cheng Ye walked back, wiping the badge clean with his shirt. "I'm officially an inspector of North Station now, aren't I?" Not understanding why Cheng Ye was asking, Jamie stared blankly for a second, then grunted an affirmative through his nose. The next second, his jaw dropped. Cheng Ye, who had been all smiles a moment ago, flicked his wrist. The badge traced a neat arc through the air, flying straight back into the sewer. "Go. Fetch it for me!" ...