I manage female characters in all the heavens.

He sensed the approaching person and turned around.

He had a square face, thick eyebrows, and big eyes with a sharp gaze like a hawk. He exuded a fierce aura that only a veteran of many battles possessed.

He was the captain of the War God Squad sent by the military—the High War God, Lu Jian.

Beside Lu Jian stood five soldiers dressed in various uniforms, both men and women, their auras calm and powerful, all war gods. Two were at the primary level and three at the intermediate level, making this squad of high overall quality.

On the other side was a group of people dressed in black trench coats, exuding a capable and calm demeanor.

Those were ten professionals with extensive criminal investigation experience and achievements, borrowed from the Security Bureau, who were currently surveying and sampling the surrounding environment.

Upon seeing "Liu Ting", Lu Jian stepped forward to greet her.

"Academician Liu".

His voice was deep and resonant, with the crispness characteristic of a soldier: "You've finally arrived."

As Lu Jian spoke, his gaze quickly swept over "Liu Ting" and the four women behind her who also exuded a composed aura.

He had learned through the military communications channel that the five people had been attacked by a King-level monster on their way here, and had even killed the King-level monster.

Even a high-level war god who had experienced countless life-and-death battles couldn't help but gasp when he heard the news.

That's a king-level monster!

Even the lowest-ranking King-level monster is not one that can be easily defeated!

He once had the privilege of witnessing a fierce battle between a councilor-level powerhouse and a king-level monster. The earth-shattering scene was still fresh in his memory, and in the end, no victor could be determined.

And now, this girl in front of me, who looks no more than eighteen or nineteen years old, has actually led four equally young helpers to kill a king-level beast!

Many councilor-level powerhouses don't even have the feat of killing a king-level monster, yet these five people have already achieved it before even reaching the councilor level, which is enough for them to walk sideways in the circle of war gods.

From the perspective of strength, the five people, including "Liu Ting", are already worthy of respect. A war god-level mentalist is far stronger than a martial artist of the same level.

Moreover, the five of them also killed a king-level monster. In terms of achievements, they have already surpassed the entire War God circle and are even more worthy of respect.

Furthermore, Liu Ting's contributions to scientific research are no secret within the upper echelons of human society. Every War God is a member of this circle and naturally knows the significance of Liu Ting to humanity.

All these factors combined led Lu Jian to feel genuine admiration for "Liu Ting".

“Captain Lu.” Liu Ting nodded, her tone calm, showing no extra politeness or contempt despite the other party’s status as a high-level war god. “Take me to the scene.”

Chapter 263 Full of Self-Awareness, The Final Gift

Lu Jian didn't waste any words and gestured, "This way, please."

He led "Liu Ting" through a wrecked passage to the edge of the crater, pointing to the broken metal base at the bottom of the crater:

"This is the core base of the railgun. After the explosion, the entire gun body was completely melted down, and only a small amount of debris from this base remains."

"The investigation team has conducted thorough evidence collection in the surrounding area and has extracted some samples from the melt, but no abnormal components have been detected yet."

"Because of time constraints, we cannot completely rule out all possibilities. If Academician Liu needs it, I can have them send the samples to you for review immediately."

Martial artists hold a very high status among human beings, higher than any other profession. If Liu Ting were not not only a skilled researcher but also an extremely powerful mentalist, she would not have received such polite treatment from Lu Jian.

He was said to be only there to take over the defense of the No. 26 ancient civilization site, but in reality, he's the one in charge here now, and everyone, including the investigation team, has to obey his orders.

As per the military's previous orders, the investigation team consisted of ten people, who were responsible for the investigation, evidence collection, and reasoning.

If it is necessary to arrest criminals or carry out suppression, the War God Squad led by Lu Jian will be responsible.

"Liu Ting" only needs to use her expertise in railguns to point out potential problems, direct everyone to do this and that, and confirm or deny the final result.

Professionals should handle professional matters. Yao Weiwu has done an excellent job in investigating this experimental accident, combining scientific research, criminal investigation, and force. There is no more professional team on Earth than this one.

But now, the situation has changed.

Five War God-level mental masters, each boasting a record of slaying a King-level monster, have arrived together. Lu Jian is fully aware of who should be in charge here now.

Liu Ting waved her hand: "No rush."

She walked to the edge of the pit, bent down, and carefully examined the broken base.

The base is about fifteen or sixteen meters high and more than one hundred meters in diameter. It is a composite structure made of high-strength alloy and special ceramics layered and sintered together.

It is the basic support component of the electromagnetic railgun, responsible for evenly transferring the enormous weight of the gun body to the underground foundation, and does not participate in the launching process of the electromagnetic railgun itself.

The experimental 7.0 version of the electromagnetic railgun, built by Gao Jiyuan and his team, was originally over 100 meters tall and weighed hundreds of thousands of tons. Without a good base, it would have been impossible for it to stand in this rocky area.

The procedure for this electromagnetic railgun test was to set up the railgun in the rocky area outside the No. 26 ancient civilization ruins, then open the spaceship door and fire the projectiles inside, using the spaceship's indestructible structure to catch the projectiles and neutralize their power.

Strategic weapons like electromagnetic railguns certainly can't be fired casually. A projectile traveling at one percent of the speed of light could destroy a mountain in an instant; it would be terrible to fire it carelessly and damage the plants and flowers.

Moreover, if the shell happens to land on a King-level monster and kills it instantly, it would cause a diplomatic problem between humans and monsters.

Therefore, a target capable of catching the projectiles and dissipating their power is needed for the electromagnetic railgun to be tested, and the main sites of various ancient civilizations are the best testing grounds.

They even considered this kind of problem, but they didn't consider the hidden danger that could lead to a huge explosion. This is obviously not right, there must be a conspiracy!

The truly technologically advanced parts of the electromagnetic railgun have been completely lost. It's highly unlikely that the accident was caused by a problem with the support base, so no useful information can be obtained from the gun itself.

Although this was expected, Liu Ting still couldn't help but feel disappointed.

If a part of the Railgun could be preserved, she would definitely be able to find the cause of the accident from it, and then work backward to solve the problem, and she would soon have a result.

But now, faced with an empty base, she can only look for clues from other angles.

"I need to meet with members of the project team."

The head of the investigation team was a man in his early forties surnamed Wang. He had a thin face, wore gold-rimmed glasses, and had an unlit cigarette between his fingers. When he saw "Liu Ting" approaching, he quickly put the cigarette away.

“It’s all ready, Academician Liu.” Team Leader Wang nodded. “There were nine support staff present when the accident occurred, all of whom were core members of Academician Gao Jiyuan’s electromagnetic railgun project team.”

"These nine people are currently in protective quarantine and awaiting your inquiries."

"it is good."

"Liu Ting" turned and walked towards a makeshift interrogation room next door.

She summoned each of the nine core members one by one.

Everyone who came in was a little apprehensive and nervous.

But when "Liu Ting" spoke, her tone was not as aggressive as expected; instead, it was quite calm.

She simply asked each person about their specific work duties before the incident, the procedures for the experiment that day, and whether they had noticed anything unusual.

As she asked the question, an extremely subtle mental force, imperceptible to others, silently enveloped the other party like an invisible spider web, capturing their emotional fluctuations, physical reactions, and even the most subtle changes in their heartbeats as they answered.

She has devoured tens of thousands of martial artists, and her understanding of human physiological reactions far surpasses that of ordinary people. Her mental power can also perceive emotions to a certain extent.

If any of these people are lying to her, even if they are intentionally concealing the slightest detail, her mental power will definitely be able to detect the abnormal fluctuations.

however……

Nine people in a row were asked.

There was nothing unusual, and there was no lying.

These people's accounts of the experimental process and their descriptions of their work are all clear and coherent, without any contradictions or deliberate avoidance.

When they recalled Academician Gao Jiyuan, they all showed genuine grief and regret, which did not seem like an act.

It's almost certain that, at least among the core members of the Railgun project, there are no problems.

But this only deepened Liu Ting's doubts.

If the problem wasn't with the person in charge of final assembly and debugging, then where did the problem lie?

As she was deep in thought, a member of the investigation team suddenly strode in from outside, carrying a silver-white metal box that was about thirty centimeters square.

"Academician Liu!"

The team member walked up to her and handed her the box with both hands, saying, "We found this in Academician Gao's safe in his dormitory while we were sorting through his belongings."

“The box was engraved with ‘Happy 19th Birthday, Liu Ting.’ We thought it must be something left for you by Academician Gao, so we quickly delivered it.”

Liu Ting paused slightly, then reached out and took the metal box.

The box is quite heavy. The outer shell is made of some special alloy, with a smooth, mirror-like surface and no welding seams.

There is a row of sophisticated electronic latches along the edge, next to which is a small numeric keypad indicating that a 26-digit password is required.

Liu Ting's birthday is September 29th, which is less than half a month away now.

Gao Jiyuan had mentioned on the phone that he had prepared a special gift for her, and that he would return after the experiment to have their first real teacher-student meeting and present the gift to her.

As it turned out, just one day later, Gao Jiyuan never had the chance to personally deliver the gift.

The box is a portable, secure storage box specifically designed to store extremely valuable items. It can withstand ordinary missile attacks without damaging the contents.

After a brief moment of thought, Liu Ting inputted key data related to the electromagnetic railgun she had provided to Gao Jiyuan and successfully opened the box.

Gao Jiyuan is not a complicated person; in fact, he can be described as simple. During their time together, Liu Ting saw through him and could easily guess what kind of password he would set for the box.

Click.

A soft sound.

The latch popped open.

The box was opened.

The members of the investigation team were somewhat surprised to see this, but remained silent.

Liu Ting lifted the lid of the box and saw what was inside.

It was a fairly large box, but most of the interior was made of special cushioning layers, with only a small recess in the middle containing a glass bottle filled with red liquid, which could be easily held in one hand.

When the glass bottle was removed, a piece of paper was found stuck in the groove. It had some words written on it, and the handwriting was very messy.

It was clearly written by Gao Jiyuan himself, and it was encrypted, so most people couldn't understand it at all, but fortunately, "Liu Ting" could be easily identified.

In the note, Gao Jiyuan said that the liquid in the glass bottle was an unexpected product of his earlier research on a kind of plant spirit, in an attempt to replicate its similar effects with human technology.

This product is roughly equivalent to a dose of herbal essence, but it is gentler and can be easily absorbed and digested by ordinary people.

After the experiment, the state allocated this to him as a reward, which he has kept to this day.

He believed that this gift could help Liu Ting, who had given up the path of martial arts to focus on scientific research, to reach the level of a War God and make the most of her amazing spiritual talent.

This is the greatest compensation he, as a teacher, can give to "Liu Ting" for giving up the path of martial arts to pursue scientific research, and he hopes that "Liu Ting" will not find it distasteful.

At the end of the note, Gao Jiyuan wrote a message: