1102 Law Enforcement Activity

Lao Wang was full of gratitude towards this. Thus, he did not reject any invitations from the Machinery race. Furthermore, he had just received a special letter from Old Cow mysteriously asking him to make a trip back as an old friend wanted to meet him.

He did not know whether it was inconvenient to elaborate in the letter, or the old friend wanted to create a sense of mystery for Wang Zhong, or their identity was classified and could not be exposed in the letter… Lao Wang was too lazy to blindly guess who it would be. In any case, he would know when he went there. As luck would have it, it conveniently fitted with the Machinery race's arrangements.

With the Law Enforcement Association, transportation was naturally extremely convenient. Regardless of whether it was the arrangements with the Heavenly Gates or the transmission arrays and arrivals at various places, they were definitely of high standard and efficiency. They had determined the meetup location in the early morning and then notified Wang Zhong. Before noon, a row of people was already standing at the Catanlyke District transmission area.

"We call this plainclothes law enforcement." In a large Machinery race flying shuttle, Rhode D was transforming his outer appearance.

Its machinery structure that seemed rigid started to wriggle like cells, and Rhode D turned into a celestialoid. Furthermore, its skin automatically adjusted its lighting and color, making it seem not much different from the Earthling. It smiled and explained to Wang Zhong, "In the eyes of the other civilizations in the land, the Machinery race is too strict, and they are too alert against us. Under normal circumstances, the probability of something happening within a 1,000-meter radius of a Machine is about 0.1%… If we were the law enforcement squad, we would definitely want such peace and silence, even if this peace is a disguise that the other civilizations put up because of their fear."

So they were traveling incognito… The principle behind this was very easy to understand, but this transformation ability widened Lao Wang's horizons. He had always thought that the Machinery race had poker faces that never changed. However, he never thought that it was only true if they did not transform. This transformation allowed them to be strikingly alike to another race. Using their imitation ability, not only was the Earthling they had transformed into very similar in terms of external appearances, even the aura and other qualities were also extremely similar. Even with Lao Wang's discernment, if he had not known this in advance, he might have overlooked this in a flash.

Lao Wang gave a thumbs-up. "Is this imitation ability a natural endowment of the Machinery race?"

"It is natural endowments and learning." Rhode D said in a serious tone, "In the early days, our disguises were easily exposed by others, but now, extremely few people can see through us. This is actually a small trick and is not much."

Lao Wang could only laugh cheerily. After interacting with the Machinery race for a long time, he realized that this group of people was very down-to-earth, to the extent that they were constantly observing other civilizations.

The so-called plainclothes law enforcement involved traveling incognito, where a group of "crown princes" dressed as tourists and strolled through the streets. Firstly, this was to monitor the law enforcement situation of various law enforcement squads. This group of Machines who were able to join the Heavenly Gates had great natural endowments. As law enforcement elites who the Machinery race placed emphasis on nurturing, it was obvious that they had to understand how the bottom classes operated, as well as how they reacted to law enforcement.

Secondly, they were here to do an investigation. They would gather various crime facts and evidence, as well as the social framework and civilization structure from several areas where incidents frequently occurred. Thus, most of the time, these plainclothes law enforcers would not remove their disguise or directly engage in law enforcement. Unless it was something that simply could not be ignored, they would simply make various records during typical law enforcement activities.

They had a total of seven people present. Rhode D and Rowling J were more familiar with Wang Zhong, and Rowling J continuously introduced the situation to Wang Zhong. At the same time, she referred to the resources she had on hand and listened to the supplementary details that Wang Zhong provided. After all, he had lived here for several months and had a deeper understanding of the recent changes in power in the district.

As a large district in the middle circle of the Land, the public security in Catanlyke District had been considered good in the past. However, it was said that the crime rate had been increasing sharply, mainly because of the changes among a few important powers in this district.

Lao Wang was somewhat sentimental about this. He had directly or indirectly participated in the changes in the main powers within the Catanlyke District, such as the disappearance of the Shell Shade Faction, the retreat of the Ninth Wilderness Path from the district, and so on. Taking the Ninth Wilderness Path incident as an example, a level-6 civilization had been toppled; thus, the areas they controlled became ownerless. This resulted in competition and divisions between various large powers in the Catanlyke District. This did not cause any wars between large powers, but there were definitely many small disputes, assassinations in the dark, struggles for power, conspiracies, and many other things.

Furthermore, as a district in the middle circle of the Land, the Machinery race police force in the Catanlyke District was extremely limited and could not take comprehensive care of the area. The lack of law enforcement forces also caused the worsening of various circumstances. There was no chaos, but the small crimes continued.

Even in Old Cow's previous letter to Wang Zhong, he mentioned that the people in the Heavenly Treasures Street did not quite dare to stroll around the streets now. They were afraid of causing trouble.

Once the seven of them entered the Catanlyke District, they decided to walk the rest of the way. Rhode D had information regarding the various streets and powers in the Catanlyke District on hand. With "native" Wang Zhong's constant supplementary knowledge, they managed to reap many results from patrolling the streets one by one.

The area once occupied by the Shell Shade Faction had been developed into a tourism and business district, while the Jiuli tree that had once blocked out the skies had also been chopped down. The entire place looked completely different from the dark and damp area of the past. However, this place was to be the main focus of today's inspection. The public order was in chaos, and various powers arbitrarily entered the area. Even though the Machinery race had increased law enforcement forces here and there were many Machines patrolling the area, they were still unable to completely stop the frequent disputes.

During the investigation that lasted for just two to three hours in the afternoon, Rhode D, Wang Zhong, and the others had discovered at least three cases of intentional harm against civilians. They had all been carried out in the dark. They rapidly sorted out the evidence, a Law Enforcement Association Machinery-race method that was rather specific and targeted. If the perpetrators had not been caught red-handed by Rhode D and the other disguised Machines, these would definitely have become a pile of ordinary missing-person cases.

"In conclusion, the main reason is that we do not have enough law enforcement squad personnel. If the law enforcement squad had been able to immediately reach the crime scene, those people would not have been able to eliminate the evidence for those three cases so easily." Rhode D shook its head. "The Catanlyke District law enforcement squad has increased the number of people allocated to the Shell Shade Street, and around thirty Machines are permanently stationed to patrol this area. However, this is still not enough. There are too many unexpected incidents. In an environment with new powers that are in the process of rebuilding, there are too many disputes among the various powers. I think that we need at least fifty people permanently stationed here…"

"Fifty people? Impossible." Rowling J shook her head. "At the very least, the Catanlyke District does not have such conditions for this kind of law enforcement."

Under normal circumstances, large districts in the middle circle of the Land would be equipped with 1,000 Machines to make up their law enforcement squad. However, such large districts would have dozens of streets and various powers. Among the 1,000 Machines — after eliminating the special forces teams that were constantly prepared to deal with emergency situations, the logistics team, the admin personnel, the court personnel, and even the higher-ups — only 30 to 40 people were left to patrol the streets. They would have to manage dozens of streets, and the average number of stationed law enforcers at each street was at most six or seven people. Under normal circumstances, this would be enough. However, they had stationed 30 people here, which greatly increased the public security workload of other areas in the Catanlyke District. This also caused the public security standard of the entire district to fall. Unless they sent another 20 people here, the public security of the entire Catanlyke District would collapse.

"We can only take manpower from the headquarters." Rhode D was solemnly making the final evaluation of this inspection.

"The overall public security assessment of Catanlyke District is grade B-, while the public security of Shell Shade Street is D. The main reason for this public chaos is the messy affairs of various powers without a dominant civilization-power having ownership. Suggestions to deal with this. One, immediately transfer five law enforcement teams from the headquarters to supplement the patrolling forces in the Catanlyke District. Two, increase the public security level. Catanlyke District is at yellow alert, while Shell Shade Street is at a special red alert. The chaotic situation should be dealt with through severe punishment, and we cannot allow the situation to get out of control. Three, centralized ownership by a civilization power, coordinated by the local court. Use a competition to end the chaotic disputes between various powers. If necessary, forced law enforcement measures can be taken, and the local court can also nominate an owner civilization! Four, …"

Needless to say, Rhode D's foresight and the suggestions submitted to handle this situation were rather direct. As expected of the elites of the Law Enforcement Association. They were able to clearly understand the entire situation at the Catanlyke District after half a day of inspections.

The disputes between the various powers and civilizations in the Land were the main source of the various turmoils and crimes in the divine territory. Some small merchants might feel distressed about the so-called "protection fees" that they paid the local powers every month, but in reality, they did not know how lucky they were. Without a dominant civilization exercising their control over them, and without a centralized standard of collecting "protection fees", residents in ownerless areas like Shell Shade Street that were disputed by many powers were truly tragic!

At the same time, this would increase the workload of the Machinery race. The Machinery race were not apparatus. They also needed to rest and time for themselves. Wang Zhong was very clear about this. In reality, the Machinery race were experts at play.

After they finished writing the report, they examined and supplemented the report again. Then, Rhode D looked at Wang Zhong with a rare amusement in its eyes. "Wang Zhong, I heard that you Earthlings don't have an official base in the Land yet. In reality, with your current strength and reputation in the Heavenly Gates, you are stronger than many level-6 civilizations who occupy territories in the middle circle."