AZI Volume 3 Chapter 17

Pass the hours of one, in the afternoon—

"…"

As Ye Chen focused on driving them to their planned destination, Li Xue, who is seated in the rundown trucks' front passenger seat, suggests—

"Well then, let's go over the details, shall we?"

As the three seated in the back raised their ears, Li Xue looks to the computer on her lap, and begins with—

"Our activity today takes place in the same ward as our office building."

"Hm?"

Their office building is in the sixth ward, the ward that focuses on the education of Sinners; and since that is the case, Yu Ji can't help but ask—

"Then, why are we moving out of the ward?"

"There might be a need to give chase later, so we're getting our sole means of transport into position first. Also, we figured that making it look as if we had left the office, would make our targets less vigilant—should they have eyes on us. Currently, we're on our way over to the fifth ward's dividing line."

"Hm? Going through so much effort is…?"

Before Qing Yue can finish asking, Li Xue answers—

"Whoever is distributing the Carps, let's just say, they're far more capable than what the military had originally thought them out to be."

"I see. Still, business for them must be booming in the sixth ward."

"It's easier to entice the young than it is to entice the old, after all."

"With how shit the learning environment is, it hardly takes any effort to get them in line to using that drug."

Towards Qing Yue, Long Hua, and Yu Ji's respective inputs, Li Xue raises a sigh. She has to agree with these remarks herself, as she says—

"I'm sure you three got plenty you'd want to say about Sinner education, but… No time for that right now. In any case, here."

Uncaringly, Li Xue tosses two packages to the back, and lands them onto Yu Ji and Qing Yue's lap, to which, Qing Yue asks—

"What's this for?"

"Wait, this cheap and flimsy uniform jacket, is it…?"

"We need people to look like students. Otherwise, how would we be able to bait the distributors to us?"

"Why us?"

Asking this, Yu Ji looks over to Long Hua, who wasn't given a uniform. Towards this gesture, Li Xue answers—

"You two will be acting out the roles of a model student. Long Hua will act out the role of a delinquent."

Hearing his assigned role, Long Hua thought—

(Come to think of it, the few that were well-off in S09 didn't bother to wear these uniforms until the last day of class.)

Clearing her throat, Li Xue continues to say—

"By the time we get this truck into position, it will be close to the time when school gets out. You three need to just walk around the sixth ward at random. Hopefully, things will go smoothly, and we manage to hook a dealer in."

The only concern Li Xue has of this not working—is if the distributors of the Carps already knew Yu Ji, Qing Yue, and Long Hua's faces.

But considering how newly established their office is, the odds of that happening shouldn't be very high. At the same time, face masks have been slipped into Yu Ji and Qing Yue's uniform pockets.

Exhaling a long breath, Li Xue concludes her briefings with—

"Keep your phones on with an active call connected to me at all times during the operation. The keyword to ask for backup is "unmute." Any other questions?"

"Captain and vice-captain aren't joining us out in the fields?"

"…2nd Lieut. Qing Yue, me aside, you really shouldn't be asking a 23-year-old woman a question like that."

Keeping his eyes on the road, Ye Chen—who hasn't said a word since they got into the truck, finally decides to speak up now.

"Must be nice being young and looking the part as well, don't you think, Qing Yue?"

"Uh…"

Unconsciously, Qing Yue straightens her back.

…

Just as planned, by the time they arrived at their destination, school was nearly over.

Seeing as how it would be far too conspicuous of them—to park the truck right outside of the two wards' dividing lines, Ye Chen had decided in advance to park it inside of an alleyway nearby.

As the two playing the role of model students only needed to swap out their coats for the uniform jacket to look the part, Yu Ji and Qing Yue didn't take long to change.

"I'm off then."

"Good luck."

Yu Ji is the first to leave.

"I'm heading out as well."

15 minutes after Yu Ji had left, Qing Yue was the second to go after donning her face mask.

The final person to leave—

"…You're really getting into this 2nd Lieut. Long Hua."

Taking out a pair of round-framed sunglasses, Long Hua puts them on—while his right hand holds onto a fan. Both items were something that he obtained from the free ten-rolls.

Tapping the fan onto the palm of his left hand, Long Hua asks—

"What do you think, captain?"

Appearance wise, he does look the part of a rich young master from an influential household.

Looking at Long Hua through the rear seat mirror, Ye Chen remarks—

"Like a prick—who will ogle at any girl that passes him by."

"Good, well then, I'll be on my way."

"Uh…"

Upon Long Hua opening the fan, Ye Chen is somewhat speechless—in response to the words, which are written onto the fan in black ink.

"Number one hottie in the mortal realm…"

Reading the five characters aloud—a difficult to describe expression, appears on Ye Chen's face.

Not minding Ye Chen's reaction, Long Hua opens the door of the truck, and leaves.

If nothing happens, this would just be a casual stroll.

"Talk about la-… No, just gaudy…"

Having seen the words on Long Hua's fan, Li Xue reacts in the same way as Ye Chen, to which, the former replies—

[I heard that, vice-captain. I'm only putting on this appearance in case the distributors know our faces.]

"…Sorry."

Having said her apology, Li Xue mutes her microphone.