The Gentleman at the End

Chapter 86: Chapter 85: Investigation Mission

[Belli Herta]

A senior officer of Cesimani, with a hobby of “collecting fingers,” whether they belong to humans or patients, any distinctive fingers could become part of her collection.

Her disciples often brought back fingers to please her during their missions, and if they could satisfy Belli, they might even receive some extra rewards.

Before becoming an officer, she had also trained at Cesimani,

coincidentally, Zede was in the same class as her, and they even had a good private relationship and had teamed up before, but eventually, they embarked on drastically different paths.

Now, when she saw a disciple trained by Zede, she couldn’t help but reminisce about some past events, which made her no longer averse to this young man who was not from Cesimani.

When Yi Chen came back, she casually handed him a bottle of healing potion and asked, “How has Zede been doing recently?”

“Although confined to the basement of the teaching building, as long as he desires something, the academy will satisfy him. He can even conduct various physical experiments, continuing his exploration of the physical.

Such treatment makes him unconcerned about ‘imprisonment.’

He is currently not only conducting physical training for me, but also responsible for teaching ‘Pathology’ to our class.”

Hearing this, a tinge of melancholy flashed across Belli’s light green eyes.

“It’s better than I imagined, pity… This guy’s eyes are ruined, otherwise he could have gone much further, not confined to Zion.”

“You have a good relationship with teacher Zede?”

Belli gave Yi Chen a ‘be quiet’ look, putting an end to the topic, “Alright, let’s talk about things between you now.”

“Okay.”

As Yi Chen sat down at the desk, Belli immediately grabbed his right hand and examined the form of his five fingers using a monocle, reading the information they contained.

“Worked in a cemetery before, never had any hand care.

However, the proportions of the finger joints are suitable, nail thickness is moderate, blood color uniform… Upper-middle class fingers, barely acceptable.”

When Belli released his hand, Yi Chen quickly withdrew his palm, worried she might suddenly cut off one of his fingers as a collection.

“Don’t worry, I don’t take fingers from living people.”

Belli then pulled open the second drawer on the right side of the desk.

She took out a stack of black files and, after careful selection, pulled out one of the documents.

“There aren’t many ‘troubles’ to handle recently, there’s only this one suitable for you.”

Receiving the black file, Yi Chen saw a type of mission format completely different from Gentleman Hall, the first line of the document did not indicate the name of the mission but used keywords instead.

——

Keywords: [Forest], [Church], [Investigation & Slaughter], [Grayification], [Team action]

Introduction:

Located in Jose Valley, Shepherd Village surfaced a few months ago with a group of small organizations that received the villagers’ support and established churches in the valley, self-declared as the “New Life Church.”

The first few months were uneventful, and the village still complied with the rules set by the Organization, even increasing the quantity of agricultural products and meat submitted every month.

Until two weeks ago, the trees around the village grew overnight into a structure resembling walls, completely cutting off all outside contact. @@novelbin@@

They continue to grow even now, affecting the entire ecology of Jose Valley.

The Organization has dispatched some gentlemen to temporarily station outside Jose Valley, initiating an investigation into the unusual conditions in the forest.

The area surrounded by the tree wall has undergone grayification and even shows clear tendencies of evolving into a Grey Zone.

Please head to the [Black Eye Outpost] in Jose Valley, cooperate with the gentleman squad stationed there, ascertain the situation of the village and church organization, bring back crucial clues, and attempt to eradicate the source of grayification.

Subsequent reward will be based on the difficulty of the event.

——

No mission name or difficulty is provided, just operational instructions.

According to the geographical books Yi Chen had previously seen,

the so-called Jose Valley is located about three to four hundred kilometers from Zion, a valley surrounded by mountains, rich in diverse flora and fauna, alongside some more primitive village tribes.

However,

with the beginning of the Disease Era, most villages began to decline, and some small villages were even “emptied” within a few days, with no one in sight.

Only a very few large villages still barely existed, but the population continued to decrease,

until the Organization intervened and established related “Rules” for the villages, allowing the villagers to finally avoid grayification and death to some extent, and barely continue living in the villages.

The villages handed over 10% of their livestock and agricultural products to Zion each year in exchange for the Gentlemen’s indirect protection.

…

Yi Chen whispered, “The New Church… are the numbers and related situations unclear?”

Belli propped up her long legs, sharpening her fingernails with a small knife.

“I’m not going to provide such boring and tedious information here. When you reach the Black Eye base, ask the gentleman responsible for investigating this matter there.

However, those people are truly useless, spending so much time and still unable to resolve this matter, forcing us Cesimani to arrange for personnel to go and support them.

If you two had not come today, this task would have been assigned to someone else.”

At this moment, Jin suddenly threw out a strange question:

“Teacher, have any Gentlemen died in this forest or inside a village?”

“Two Gentleman Teams lost contact completely while conducting internal investigations after transcending the tree wall; whether they died or not, I’m not sure.”

“Lost contact…interesting.”

Jin’s question was just this one, and he even seemed to become a bit excited.

Yi Chen still had some considerations and requests. “Could you provide us with the ‘Rules’ of Shebolt Village?”

“You can directly pick up a copy of the relevant rules at Gentleman Hall; if you don’t want to waste time, head straight for the Black Eye base, where they definitely have a backup of the relevant rules.

If there are no problems, you can set out now.”

Jin had already become restless, tugging at Yi Chen’s sleeve and pulling him towards the door.

Just then,

Belli suddenly added, “Hold on a moment, Jin~ you go outside first.

I need to talk alone with William, especially since this is his first time executing a task on our side.”

“Alright.”

Jin waved his little hand, bidding a temporary farewell to Yi Chen.

As the dark door closed,

Yi Chen only felt his tie being grabbed and he was pulled towards the desk.

Teacher Belli’s face was almost close to his,

“I just want to remind you that the youngsters who teamed up with Jin recently, even those who are a year senior, invariably got injured and rather severely; the worst case resulted in death.

Sometimes she can be extremely uncontrollable,

and the area you are touching upon has already undergone deep grayification and may even turn into the Grey Zone during your investigation. If she engages in reckless behavior with a tendency toward proactively touching upon the danger of death, you need to actively intervene.

If you can come back intact, the two of you can work as long-term partners, and I will offer my support.

Jin is one of the most talented individuals with the ‘Executioner Talent’ that I have ever seen; the only thing lacking is ‘controllability’… I hope you can become the most important ‘control gear’ inside her.”

“Since I have chosen to work with Jin, I will do my best.”

“Mm~ Also, when you have time, send my regards to Zede, if that guy still remembers me.”

“No problem! Miss Belli, do you know what happened to Mr. Zede’s eyes?”

“Once deep in the Grey Zone, this guy paid a painful price without considering the consequences… However, because of his madness, including me, the rest of the team members were able to survive.

Stop talking and hurry up and set out.”