Embers Ad Infinitum

After hearing Han Wanghuo’s words, Shang Jianyao wore a look of ‘agreement.’ “After discovering that the person is an Awakened in the Arbiter of Fate domain, I was rather worried about your heart.”

Arbiter of Fate-domain Awakened… Han Wanghuo had once been Redstone Collection’s sheriff and town guard captain. He had interacted with the Vigilance Church and faced the Murloc Oracle directly, so he didn’t lack knowledge of such matters.

However, Zeng Duo was different. She only knew about the Kalendarium and the Awakened. She had encountered certain churches but didn’t know the division of domains and their details.

At this moment, when she heard Shang Jianyao’s description, she suddenly felt like they weren’t in the same world.

Jiang Baimian didn’t reprimand Shang Jianyao for his honesty and instead consoled Han Wanghuo. “It can only be confirmed after a detailed examination. What you feel can’t override an instrument’s reading; there will often be a large error.”

“Where can we do the check?” Han Wanghuo asked.

Just as he said that, he felt that his tone was a little rash. He subconsciously said, “Sorry, I’m not in a good mood.”

“I understand.” Shang Jianyao had a sympathetic expression.

Jiang Baimian also made it apparent that it was fine. She tried asking herself inwardly, When you’re terminally ill, don’t have much time left, and just as you’ve finally found a cure—allowing you to see the light of day and fight for it—a group of people who call themselves your friends suddenly appear and disrupt all your plans, making everything less certain. Would you be angry?

Jiang Baimian’s answer was: Even if the other party had no ill intentions and the screwing up of his plans was purely an accident, he would still be very angry.

Under those circumstances, rationality was often scarce.

She temporarily avoided the topic of checking his body and deliberated before asking, “So, you’ve already found a suitable heart and are waiting to complete a mission to raise enough money to exchange for it?”

“You can say so.” Han Wanghuo deliberately didn’t look at Zeng Duo.

“What mission is it?” Shang Jianyao asked curiously.

At this moment, Zeng Duo got off the bed and stretched her body. “Actually, that mission is to save my hometown. The reward is my heart.”

She could tell that these people were friendly to Han Wanghuo and felt that there was a need to clarify the situation. Otherwise, given the current situation, she and Han Wanghuo might not even be able to leave the city, much less organize enough people to rescue Early Spring Town.

Ah… Long Yuehong never expected Shang Jianyao’s previous guess to be correct—Han Wanghuo really brought the organ provider with him!

H-he’s not disgusted? Long Yuehong thought for a moment and believed that normal people wouldn’t do this if they didn’t really have any other choice.

Perhaps she felt that Zeng Duo resembled her in some aspects, so Bai Chen took the initiative to ask, “You chose to sacrifice yourself for your hometown?”

“It’s not a sacrifice.” Zeng Duo smiled. “It’s the effective usage of trash.”

She further explained, “I’m also terminally ill. These organs will be useless when the time comes.”

“What illness?” Jiang Baimian asked.

Zeng Duo didn’t need to think about it and directly said, “I’m not too sure what exactly the blood disease caused by the mutation is. The clinic doctor said a bunch of terms that I don’t understand.”

That might not be a terminal illness… It’s necessary to do a detailed examination… Jiang Baimian didn’t say these words. This would make it seem like she was undermining Han Wanghuo and blocking his path to salvation.

Before giving a new, concrete plan, she decided to remain silent on this matter. Although she sympathized with Zeng Duo, they didn’t have any ties in the past.

That kind of pity wouldn’t affect her choices.

“Is that so…” Shang Jianyao nodded slightly and assumed Jiang Baimian’s usual posture. “What happened to your hometown? Why do you need to save it?”

Zeng Duo briefly explained how Early Spring Town had been reduced to First City’s experimental zone.

Long Yuehong and the others wore strange expressions as they listened. Aren’t biochemical experiments and genetic research standard for our own company? This is also one of the reasons why Pangu Biology doesn’t have a good reputation. But now, First City has actually begun to conduct similar experiments. Furthermore, they’re conducted under coercion, not voluntarily. Did they get the wrong script?

After careful thought, Jiang Baimian felt that this was completely understandable. Any large faction had a natural desire to improve its shortcomings. As long as there was a chance, they definitely wouldn’t let it go!

But First City’s way of doing things is too crude and brutal, right? According to this lady, there are countless people with abnormalities in Early Spring Town. Their lives are usually very miserable, so they could’ve used the excuse of medical consultation or directly explain your experiments that require genetic screening, which will also result in the development of treatments. That way, you can recruit a batch of fully cooperative volunteers. There’s no need to make the situation so impassable and tense… Are your people really worthless? Jiang Baimian couldn’t help but criticize.

From her point of view, First City’s method was far inferior to Pangu Biology’s efficiency. It could only be maintained by having a large population and being able to station troops everywhere.

“From your… Uh, how should I address you?” Only then did Jiang Baimian remember that she hadn’t asked the lady’s name.

Zeng Duo simply gave her name.

Jiang Baimian continued, “From your description, First City’s experimental level in your town shouldn’t be low. The security must be very high.”

At this point, she looked at Han Wanghuo and said, “Old Han, it looks like you can’t count on the manpower you organized.”

After what happened today, how could the Ruin Hunters dare to cooperate with Han Wanghuo? It would be considered noble of them not to betray him.

“We haven’t obtained the firearms we ordered either.” Han Wanghuo couldn’t help but exhale. The only thing he was glad about was that the partners he found didn’t know the specific mission and wouldn’t affect his plans with Early Spring Town.

Upon hearing Han Wanghuo’s sigh, Shang Jianyao smiled.

Before he spoke, Jiang Baimian said, “We are responsible for this matter, so how about this? We’ll be your helpers—it’s voluntary work. Uh, it’s not considered voluntary work. You have to give us a copy of the information or samples in Early Spring Town’s laboratory.”

The reason why she added the last sentence wasn’t because of her professional habit of being a Pangu Biology villain but because she was worried that Han Wanghuo—this awkward fellow—wouldn’t agree to take advantage of her.

Upon realizing that he wouldn’t be able to find other helpers for the time being, Han Wanghuo fell silent for a few seconds and said, “Alright.”

Jiang Baimian smiled. “You don’t have to worry about weapons. We have quite a number, and we’ll even throw in a killing machine.”

As she spoke, Shang Jianyao turned around and made way.

Zeng Duo and Han Wanghuo then saw Genava charging by the wall.

Robot… Han Wanghuo and Zeng Duo were alarmed before they turned delighted.

In the Ashlands, a robot with a complete set of modules was indeed a killing machine!

After he calmed down his pleasant surprise, Han Wanghuo couldn’t help but ask, “Why are you being pursued by the Hand of Order?”

This team seems to cause trouble everywhere. Back in Redstone Collection, they got into conflict with the arms dealers and crossed the Subhuman Alliance. They were never idle.

Jiang Baimian thought for a moment. “I don’t know how to tell you either. Why don’t you directly look at the bounty mission issued by the Hand of Order? Old Ge, project it for them.”

Genava immediately changed his identity and projected the information he had previously recorded onto the wall.

Han Wanghuo and Zeng Duo had only seen such high-tech methods in a few places like the Hunter’s Guild.

They composed themselves and read the corresponding content: “Participated in the gladiator arena assassination and plotting a major plot against First City…”

After reading the first part of the description, Han Wanghuo and Zeng Duo’s eyelids twitched. Who are these people?

Although Han Wanghuo could tell that October Xue’s team was likely from a large faction, he never expected them to be at odds with First City directly.

Jiang Baimian immediately coughed. “Slander—this is all slander. We only stole some information.”

“That’s right. They are too narrow-minded,” Shang Jianyao echoed.

Han Wanghuo nodded and recalled. “I remember that the Hand of Order didn’t cause such a stir during the previous gladiator arena assassination…”

As he spoke, he couldn’t continue. According to this logic, what October Xue’s team had done was much more serious than assassinating a noble in the arena. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have received such ‘treatment!’

As his body tensed, Zeng Duo saw the bounty.

“10,000 Oray per person?” blurted out the Ruin Hunter from a town of mutants in surprise.

The area she was active in was mainly within First City’s sphere of influence. The missions she usually accepted could often be converted to Oray. In all these years, she had never seen such a handsome bounty that only involved a few humans!

Although the bounty didn’t necessarily represent the targets’ danger level, the figure of 10,000 Oray still made Zeng Duo feel that everyone here was rather terrifying. It was similar to the characters used in various stories in the Ashlands to scare children and make them stop crying.

For an ordinary Ruin Hunter like her, 10,000 Oray was more than enough to buy her life.

Who are they? Zeng Duo shut her mouth and swept her gaze across Long Yuehong, Bai Chen, and the others.

“That’s about it.” Jiang Baimian vaguely ended the topic. She then frowned and said, “In this situation, we won’t be able to find a place to perform an organ transplant even if we complete Zeng Duo’s mission.”

This wasn’t a minor surgery. It required a lot of medical equipment, or the mortality rate would be extremely high.

Han Wanghuo fell silent for a moment before saying, “Doctors at Antanna Street’s unlicensed clinics care more about money than their lives.”

“Yes, we’ll see.” Jiang Baimian couldn’t think of any other solution. Although she could make the real Doctor Genava download the corresponding information and attempt to complete such an operation, the Old Task Force didn’t have the corresponding medical equipment for him.

Jiang Baimian then exhaled. “These are all subsequent problems. The most important problem now is: How do we leave First City?”