Author's note: There was a big error in chapter 168. It has been fixed, but please reread it again. Sorry for the inconvenience.

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Rui was initially surprised that the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation had deigned to commission a Martial Artist from the Martial Academy for this operation despite the fact that they already had a Martial Artist from the bureau taking part in the operation. Capturing a Martial Artist who was doing everything to avoid capture was much harder than defeating a Martial Artist in a head-on one-on-one fight.

This wasn't limited to Martial Artists either, it applied to people in general. Beating someone in a fight was easier than catching and single-handedly restraining them despite their resistance. If a person one was trying to capture simply ran away in the opposite direction with a ten-meter head start, the odds that one would close the gap, catch the person, be able to blatantly overpower them and endure any resistance they made and drag them to jail was extremely low.

In most cases, you would not catch up to them. Even if you somehow did, you would not be able to maintain hold were them, because it was unlikely you would get the right hold that would be able to restrict them, you would likely catch a pinch of their clothes, but that wasn't solid enough.Copyright by Nôv/elDrama.Org.

Even if you managed to get a strong hold of them, they could easily hinder you by dragging you to the ground, trying to wrestle their way out of this. The moment this happened, the odds that you would succeed in arresting them by yourself was very low, because now your advantage would be gone the moment it hits the ground.

Which is why the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation had commissioned an extra Martial Artist for the operation, only then did they have a realistic chance of capturing the ringleader. Ideally, a squad of Martial Artists would have been best since it would have guaranteed victory, but they couldn't afford to spent such resources for a single Martial Artist target and that too, only a strongly suspected Martial Artist target, not confirmed.

The Kandrian Bureau of Investigation did not have the luxury of limitless funds and intel. They simply had to make do with what they had and try to make the best of it.

The actual operation was quite simple in and of itself. The Kandrian Bureau of Investigation simply intended to surround the area and cut off any escapes and exits, then they would break into every location and cleanly search the entire area for the targets of the mission, eliminating the one by one. They would also free and rescue any captive children and immediately extract them to safety, and ideally, they would be able to capture the ringleader.

Rui and the Martial Artist of the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation would be along with infiltration squad and were to remain on high alert employing sensory techniques to ensure that the ringleader of the child-trafficking ring would not be able to somehow escape by evading detection.

Rui was confident he would be able to immediately detect the usage of any Apprentice-level maneuvering technique that allowed a Martial Artist travel at speeds exceeding the human limit via the Seismic mapping technique. The seismic radiation from these techniques definitely exceeded what normal humans produced and were capable of producing.

The moment he detected the ringleader, he would immediately dash towards the ringleader along with the Martial Artist of the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation. Together, they should be able to capture her. Rui didn't think she would be able to break out of the encampment and the two of them and escape safely all by herself.

The operation would begin after Rui was arrived and briefed. Although all relevant information already existed in the mission bill, it was still better to establish a mutual understanding of everybody's role in the operation.

The number of officers taking part in the mission was a total of eighty-nine, not including Rui and the Martial Artist of the Bureau.

The rest of the mission bill went more into the standard protocols Rui had to abide by.

The first impression he got was that he had very little freedom in Royal authorized missions such as this particular mission. The protocols and guidelines had made it clear that the Kandrian Bureau of Investigation had full control over all operations and could effectively order Rui specifically in regards to his contribution within the mission, the moment he accepted the mission.

This was the polar opposite of his hunting-class mission where he had an immense amount of freedom on how to fulfill the mission, to the point where he could try out wacky novel ways of fulfilling the mission based on hastily constructed hypotheses and evaluations.

Here, the Kandrian Burea of Investigation would retain all decision-making power. Rui was to simply assist with the mission however they deemed fit.

It's not that he didn't understand the reason for these protocols. Ultimately this was quite a serious matter that was exclusively the jurisdiction and responsibility of the Kandrian government. Allowing the Martial Union to have control over such operations gave the Martial Union a dangerous amount of power and authority that could allow them to easily cause massive problems to the Kandrian governemnt and the Royal Family.

It was far too great of a risk for the Royal Family to undertake, and so the jurisdiction and authority of these missions was something the Martial Union had to inevitably concede to the Royal Family, as per the terms of the Kandrian Martial Convenant.

Of course, in exchange the Martial Union got tons of funds, resources and privileges for making such concessions to the Royal Family. Compared to the soft power of having authority over these operations, the Martial Union was plenty comfortable settling for the concrete benefits that these material exchanges provided.

It was ultimately a win-win for both parties. But Martial Artists like Rui had to suffer being a subordinate for the Kandrian government specifically in regards to their participation in the operation, so he wasn't feeling all too happy about it.

Still, the success of this mission was personally important to him, and having a diverse experience would always do more good than harm.

Thus, Rui intended to see this mission to the end.