Embers Ad Infinitum

“Don’t look at her too much; it will reveal that we know her.” Bai Chen only cast a brief glance before retracting her gaze.

Back in Weed City, she and Long Yuehong weren’t like Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao—who had made direct contact with her. They had only seen Christina twice and knew what she looked like. Later, it was said that this vice president was suspected to be an Awakened from the Church of Paragon Desire.

Therefore, she didn’t want Christina to discover that Long Yuehong and her not only knew her, but they also seemed to have a deep impression of her. This would add a lot of trouble to the Old Task Force’s mission in First City.

After some thought, Bai Chen added, “You can look at her a little longer.”

It was a man’s instinct after all. Not looking might end up making Christina suspicious.

In Bai Chen’s previous career as a wilderness nomad, she had encountered similar narcissists.

Long Yuehong coughed and retracted his gaze. “I just noticed that the Ruin Hunters with female companions didn’t keep staring.”

As he spoke, he was satisfied with his obvious improvement in observation.

This was his mental journey: No, I can’t keep staring; I’ll be discovered. No, Shang Jianyao said that normal men would look at beautiful ladies for a while longer. There are only two possibilities for them to look away in a hurry. The first is that the other party has already sensed your gaze and is looking back. The second is that there’s something wrong with you. I have to pretend to look at her in passing before looking elsewhere. Eh, why did the man’s arm get pinched by his female companion? Oh, he quickly retracted his gaze from Christina and began to explain himself…

Bai Chen fell silent for a few seconds before nodding slightly. “That makes sense.”

She then said, “We know that’s not the case, but Christina doesn’t.”

“That’s right, that’s right.” Long Yuehong was a little happy that she approved of his explanation.

At this moment, Christina walked in their direction, passed by them, and entered the stairwell. She sized up Bai Chen, Long Yuehong, and Geneva, but her attention was mainly on the silver-black robot.

After the former vice president of Weed City’s Hunter’s Guild went upstairs, Long Yuehong looked back at the spot where her figure had disappeared and laughed self-deprecatingly. “Back then, she even invited Shang Jianyao to her office and turned a blind eye to me.”

He originally wanted to say ‘us’ to joke that Christina—an Awakened suspected to be a Church of Paragon Desire member—was the perfect example of a ‘face dog.’ He had learned many Old World terms from Jiang Xiaoyue’s information, but he realized that he seemed to be mocking Bai Chen for not being beautiful enough. Therefore, he forcefully changed it to ‘me.’

In any case, he knew himself well.

Just as he said that, Genava echoed, “I know the reason. You’re only 1.75 meters tall after genetic enhancement, and your looks are average…”

Long Yuehong’s mouth opened bit by bit as he forgot to close it. Bai Chen was stunned for two seconds before she covered her mouth and turned her head.

“Stop!” Long Yuehong snapped to his senses and stopped Genava from speaking. He anxiously and blankly asked, “Did Shang Jianyao teach you that?”

“Yes.” Genava nodded honestly. “He said that every time you deny yourself, I’m to repeat this sentence to stimulate you into working harder.”

“I should really thank him, huh!?” Long Yuehong turned his head awkwardly and cast his gaze at the large screen on the first floor.

The scrolling displayed the available missions: “…We urgently need a batch of water purifying equipment…”

“…There are more mutated creatures in the north bank’s wastelands. We need a one-time clean-up…”

“…A white wolf appeared in the North Shore Mountains…”

“…In search of companions heading to Ruin 9 in the Blood Wastelands…”

“…Hiring bodyguards…”

As Long Yuehong pretended to search for a mission, a team consisting of five to six Ruin Hunters arrived beside them.

The leader was a muscular Red River man with a small beard. He wore an Old World cowboy hat, a linen shirt, and an old black vest. On both sides of his waist was a pistol.

“Hey there. My name is Carlo.” The man greeted Bai Chen and Long Yuehong with a smile, and he spoke in the Red River language.

“Qian Bai.” Bai Chen skillfully gave him her fake name.

“Gu Zhiyong.” Long Yuehong answered almost immediately after her.

Carlo looked at Genava’s silver-black body and smiled. “Are you interested in forming a team to capture that white wolf in the North Shore Mountains?”

Without waiting for Long Yuehong and Bai Chen to answer, Carlo suppressed his voice and whispered, “We have some connections in the guild and obtained a top-secret piece of information. It contains detailed information about the white wolf…”

If I’m not wrong, that piece of information is the one we sold to the guild… Long Yuehong didn’t know how to answer and only muttered inwardly.

Upon seeing that the two-man team seemed to hesitate, Carlo glanced at Genava again and smiled. “Believe me; our cooperation will directly point to success. The risk also won’t be too high.”

Why does he keep staring at Genava… I get it. What caught their eye is actually the robot that’s immune to bewitchment. Little White and I are just secondary… Long Yuehong came to a realization.

At this moment, Bai Chen shook her head. “We have other missions.”

“It can be done along the way.” Carlo tried his best to persuade them. “If you don’t trust my team, you can get the guild to bear witness to our cooperation. We’ve already established ourselves in First City. We won’t abandon everything for the sake of some benefits.”

Bai Chen shook her head again. “We won’t leave the city for quite some time.”

“Alright.” Carlo looked disappointed.

Bai Chen thought for a moment and reminded him, “That white wolf might be more dangerous than you imagine.”

She and Long Yuehong didn’t stay in the Hunter’s Guild hall any longer. They ‘led’ Genava back to the street.

Long Yuehong had just taken a deep breath of air when he heard Bai Chen ask, “Did you discover anything suitable for Su Na, Li Qiong, and the others from those available missions?”

The Hunter’s Guild’s missions often indicated business opportunities.

“Ah, no.” Long Yuehong was embarrassed to say that he had only casually taken a few glances.

He was just about to suggest taking a closer look when a loud bang suddenly sounded from somewhere in the city.

Boom!

The glass windows in the surrounding buildings rattled, appearing brittle.

After the loud bang subsided, Long Yuehong looked in the general direction of the sound in confusion. “What happened?”

Bai Chen frowned and replied, “It appears to be an explosion.”

“From a comparative analysis, it was an explosion.” Genava gave the results of his analysis.

Soon, dark armed helicopters appeared in the sky. They flew toward the Red Wolf Zone’s southeast.

After a while, someone finally sold the information to the guild over the phone: There was a vicious explosion at today’s gathering!

When Bai Chen, Long Yuehong, and Genava drove to the other streets, they clearly felt the atmosphere in First City tense up. There were clearly more armed personnel patrolling.

This forced them to give up on the idea of loitering around the house of Oray’s grandson, Marcus. It was foreseeable that the Golden Apple Zone would definitely be put under martial law.

After preliminarily gathering information on which businesses in First City were easier to do, Bai Chen drove back to Green Olive Zone’s Iron Medallion Street.

…

“An explosion actually happened at the Citizen Conclave. This isn’t a trivial matter…” Jiang Baimian—who was returning to the Green Olive Zone—casually chatted as she drove. “The situation in First City seems to be in chaos.”

She and Shang Jianyao had figured out what the loud bang was through the Black Shirt Gang.

Without waiting for Shang Jianyao’s response, Jiang Baimian laughed. “This isn’t a bad thing. Some appropriate chaos might help us find an opportunity to make contact with Avia and Marcus.”

“You’re right.” Shang Jianyao was very supportive.

Jiang Baimian glared at him and turned the car onto the road that led to Ugo Hotel.

She and Shang Jianyao were going to retrieve the information regarding the Heartless disease outbreak.

The Old Task Force had paid a total of 10 Oray for this.

The hotel owner, Ugo, didn’t lie to them. He gave them a stack of information in a brownish-yellow folder.

“Thank you.” Shang Jianyao was rather polite.

He and Jiang Baimian turned around and were about to leave when a figure suddenly jumped in from the door.

The figure was a black-haired, brown-eyed Red River woman in her thirties. However, she had a lot of white hair on her head, and her skin was tanned and rough.

The woman held a simple wooden doll in her hand. Upon seeing people, she giggled and shouted, “Don’t be afraid. Philip is very obedient! He won’t indiscriminately kill after contracting the Heartless disease; he’s very obedient to me!”

As she spoke, she kept pointing at the doll in her hand with a fawning smile.

While Jiang Baimian was still stunned, she heard the hotel owner—Ugo—say, “Her child was the second patient. He just came of age…”

After a pause, Ugo looked at the woman’s eyes that were mixed with anxiety and joy. He then added in a deep voice, “She’s already gone crazy.”