This is really not mechanical ascension

"Where is the body?" he coughed dryly twice, his expression solemn.

"Yue Lan, take him to see the body... Tell him everything you know." Red Rose nodded to a person, a woman who stood up, androgynous in appearance, her expression stern.

"Wait a minute..." Red Rose spoke again, "You can go by yourself, I want to have a talk with this Li Chengwei..."

"This..." Li Ning initially hesitated, but seeing Li Ming nod, she left reassured. With this kid's cunning, there definitely wouldn't be a problem.

"All of you, go out," Red Rose dismissed everyone else, looking at Li Ming with interest, "How old?"

"Eighteen..."

"Eighteen..." Red Rose licked her lips with her pink tongue, her gaze drifting, landing on Li Ming's lower body, her meaning profound, "All of them?"

"Not just those."

Red Rose was slightly startled, not expecting the young man to react so quickly, interesting, she smiled even more seductively, "You probably didn't enter the City Guard through regular means, did you?"

Li Ming countered, "I don't know what business you have in mind?"

"You're not an ordinary city guard, they have a line that they do not cross, and wouldn't use such methods." Red Rose lit a cigarette, puffing smoke, "Are you interested in making a deal with me?"

"I draw a clear line between myself and evil," Li Ming said gravely.

Red Rose's expression froze for a moment, she said helplessly, "I really don't have surveillance cameras here, and I'm not interested in recording myself naked all day."

Li Ming slightly lifted his head, a subtle sign for her to continue, which made Red Rose laugh out of exasperation.

Red Rose leaned back on the desk with both hands, her slim figure fully displayed, "It's simple, I need insider information about the city guards."

"At the same time, I can also offer you some compensation. I know the salary of city guards, especially for auxiliary guards like you, isn't even enough for drinking."

Not everyone can be bought, like that guy just now, Red Rose had seen him a few times but never mentioned such matters.

"Don't think you can corrupt me with these methods!" Li Ming shouted decisively, turning his head to leave. He deliberately stopped at the door, obviously waiting for her.

This bastard, how could he be more of a bitch than her.

Red Rose gritted her teeth, following Li Ming as they left Rose Hall and headed to a nearby abandoned building, she said irritably, "Are you reassured now?"

"I want a gene seed development detection device, plus ten thousand Star Coins."

Red Rose stared hard at Li Ming because these were words he had scribbled on the ground, remaining silent.

"Impossible, that's asking for too much, you haven't done anything yet," Red Rose flatly refused, "I can only give you one detection device."

Li Ming stood up and nodded, erasing the words on the ground with his foot, which was his main motive.

She was tricked again!

Red Rose realized that the detection device was his true goal all along; he was just deliberately asking for too much.

But fortunately, she had one available, intending to throw it to Li Ming as a second-hand item, it wasn't a big loss.

"Come back with me, are you planning to deliver it here?" Red Rose taunted a few words.

Li Ming didn't move an inch, Red Rose had to go back and fetch the item herself. Li Ming still didn't accept it until she had placed the item down and left completely, only then did he pick it up.

This detection device was a basic model, a purple-red rectangle, with a thumb-sized screen on top of a silver-white metal plate.

On the back there was a series of numbers, Li Ming immediately understood, those were Red Rose's dark web codes.

A drop of fresh blood needed to be squeezed onto the silver detection plate to perform the test, and it only had a simple percentage display with a margin of error within 1%.

And his current gene development progress was about 3%.

What surprised Li Ming was that this device could also control--

[VK-2 Gene Development Testing Device--Unranked: A basic model with significant error margins.

Control Conditions: 3 points of metal energy

Control Effect: Development speed enhancement—10%

Control Ability—Enhanced Development: Increase the development speed of gene seeds by 20%.]

After understanding the contents, Li Ming's expression changed. Enhance development speed?

The development speed of gene seeds was an issue that troubled all life forms, with constantly optimized development methods and a plethora of development drugs all aiming to increase speed.

And he didn't need anything else; with this not-so-precious testing device alone, he could achieve that.

It truly solved his urgent need, as development drugs were too expensive for him to afford.

With 13 points of metal energy left, Li Ming couldn't wait to take control.

After placing it in the Control Bar, he immediately felt a cool sensation moving through his body, which would probably be more noticeable during "electrotherapy."

This testing device was immediately added to his development sequence, to be used later along with the blast shield. It was going to be exhilarating.

To his surprise, as the testing device disappeared from his hand, a chip the size of a nail cap fell to the ground.

"What is this…" he mused, picking it up from the ground and examining it closely in his hand, "A tracker? Or a bug?"

"That woman really isn't honest…" Li Ming rubbed his fingers, crushing it into powder. The chip wasn't part of the testing device's structure. After he took control, it naturally fell out.

By the time he returned, Li Ning had almost figured everything out. He was looking for Li Ming and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw him walk in from outside.

"Where have you been? I've been looking for you for quite a while," Li Ning asked.

"Just went to take a leak," Li Ming replied casually, then asked, "How's the situation?"

"I've almost figured it out. Let's go."

The two left the place. Rose Hall watched them leave before scanning a device brought by one of her sisters. The screen displayed "no signal."

"Was it discovered..." Rose Hall wasn't surprised. With that young man's cautious nature, it was hard not to be noticed.

However, she wasn't disappointed. This was just the beginning. She didn't expect to take control of him directly; there would be plenty of opportunities in the future.

"Go check out where this guy named Li Ming popped up from," she ordered.

...

"Brother Li... about what happened just now, can we not tell Captain Yang when we get back?"

As the scenery passed by, aboard the aircraft, Li Ming spoke and then added, "After all... it's not really a good thing."

Yang Peng seemed to be suspicious of Li Changhai. His recent changes had been significant enough. It was one thing for someone like Li Ning who hadn't interacted with him before.

But Yang Peng was different.

"This…" Li Ning hesitated for a moment but then nodded, "Alright."

Whether they talked about it or not didn't matter much. Li Ning was willing to do a favor, but he glanced at Li Ming looking out the window and couldn't help saying, "Don't call me Brother Li anymore. Just call me Li Ning or Little Li."

"Little Li?" Li Ming was astonished. What was this guy thinking?

Li Ning inwardly sighed. Captain Yang wanted Li Ming to learn properly from him, but it seemed it was him who needed to learn from Li Ming.

Being able to face Rose Hall without changing his expression and planting false evidence without hesitation, he was more ruthless than the old hands around Captain Yang.

Having Li Ming call him Brother Li repeatedly was really putting him under a lot of pressure.