"This is my profession and my job!" Yang Qi said seriously.

"This mission is very dangerous; you might die," Sun Hang said.

"When I initially applied to be your direct supervisor, the teacher also told me this job is dangerous, and I might die," Yang Qi said.

"What if it's something worse than death?" Sun Hang asked, "Like having your consciousness assimilated by a mysterious creature and enduring eternal torment?"

"I was already prepared for that when I joined."

"Alright, it's hard to advise someone against their fate," Sun Hang gave up, and he looked back at Candle Dragon and Zhong Ling, "Are both of you equally stubborn?"

"If I were afraid, why would I stay in Chunming City?" Candle Dragon asked with a smile.

"Fine, then I'll leave Yang Qi's safety to you... If we really encounter any mysterious creatures, you don't need to engage, just protect them," Sun Hang said.

"Okay," Candle Dragon agreed wholeheartedly.

Sun Hang opened the car's built-in navigation and entered the place name "Liangshui Gou" in the search bar.

"Navigating to Liangshui Gou for you, a total of 297 kilometers, road conditions clear, estimated travel time five hours and twenty minutes, please fasten your seatbelt, make a U-turn at the junction 50 meters ahead," the navigation software's voice sounded inside the car.

...

...

The mountain road wasn't easy to drive; the navigation's estimated time was calculated based on normal speed, but in reality, Sun Hang could only drive at 45 km/h... going faster would easily lead to a fatal accident.

Now, energy supply measures are being implemented all over Shuzhou, and roads like this with little traffic flow have been closed, power cut off entirely, and all entrances posted with conspicuous warning signs reading "Road closed, civilian vehicles prohibited, violators bear the consequences."

The mountain road was pitch dark, and the only source of illumination was the car's headlights. Under the influence of Eternal Night, there was essentially no difference between the sky at 9:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Oh no, there was a difference... back then, thanks to light pollution from the city, the brightness at 9:30 p.m. was still a bit higher... but now, those sources of light pollution have transformed into vast dark, cold forests of concrete and steel.

The four people in the car remained silent, occasionally spotting twisted figures flashing by around the highway — they were the mysterious cadavers operated by Zhong Ling, serving as "bodyguards + living radars" around the cars.

"Yang Qi," after driving for nearly an hour, Sun Hang suddenly spoke, "Can we access the military drone network of Lizhou City?"

"Yes," Yang Qi nodded while holding the laptop.

In fact, with Sun Hang's current clearance, not only could he access Lizhou City's military drone network, but he could also have all of Lizhou City's drones follow behind their car.

"How many drones are hovering in this airspace?"

"Six," Yang Qi said, "Among them, the drone numbered LZ852SA93 is right above us."

Yang Qi transferred the images received by the laptop onto the car's central control screen, showing a long strip of a light spot moving slowly among the pitch-black mountains — this light spot was actually the SUV they were sitting in.

"The altitude is too high, can you lower it a bit?" Sun Hang asked.

"Yes," Yang Qi's slender fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard, and after modifying the related parameters, the drone quickly lowered its altitude... the vehicle's contours appeared on the screen, and the previously merged long strip of light turned into two lines — those were the beams from the car's headlights, projecting onto the road dozens of meters ahead.

"Have this drone follow us continually and transmit the video footage in real-time to the Anomaly Investigation Bureau of Lizhou City... no, directly to Tianfu City," Sun Hang said, "If only the previous investigation team had a drone following them all the way, they wouldn't have gone missing."

"The action plan mentioned that the investigation team had their reconnaissance drones with them," Yang Qi said while operating, "But they didn't release them before reaching the target area."

"I suggest making this a classic case and include it in the Mysterious Creature Talent Training Base's curriculum," Sun Hang said, "So many people died, and no lesson is learned?"

"Perhaps it was to conserve energy," Yang Qi said, "After all, the supplies the convoy carried were limited, and using military drones meant for monitoring mountainous areas wasn't compliant with regulations..."

"Noncompliant... that stupid regulation was abolished long ago," Sun Hang couldn't help but complain, "Oh, and the rule that says you aren't considered missing until after 72 hours have passed... regulations are dead, people are alive, can't they understand even that much?"

"Actually, many people know the unreasonable aspects of these regulations," Candle Dragon said, "But in fact, these rules and regulations have considered various situations; if you abolish them all, it could lead to an even more chaotic situation."

"So, it's just laziness?"

"You can't summarize it with the word 'lazy'; people's abilities and perceptions vary greatly. Unless you can have all federal management institutions share a super brain for decision-making, these rules and regulations indeed have no necessity... but since that's not feasible, the existence of regulations is reasonable," Candle Dragon explained.

"... I suddenly think your suggestion is quite constructive."

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