Squid Who Loves Diving
Chapter 446: Matters of the Town
"It's almost ready," he nodded to Zeng Duo, who was short, thin, and looked ill, "Only the last two things are left."
"I know, thank you for your hard work." Zeng Duo, with short hair and wheat-colored skin, took the paper bag from Han Wanghuo's hand, "I'll cook."
Han Wanghuo paused for a moment and said:
"You don't need to do this, you are not my servant."
Zeng Duo looked down at the brown work shoes on her feet and said frankly:
"My request is indeed more excessive than what you will gain. I want to compensate you a little more while I'm still alive."
Her request for the heart in the deal was to "save a small town."
That town was called "Chuchun Town," a settlement inhabited by Greytowners.
Compared to most places, Chuchun Town was surrounded by relatively abundant resources, enough to support the residents. The only misfortune was that the surrounding water resources were all contaminated to some extent.
Because there was enough food there, the people of Chuchun Town were afraid to and reluctant to leave. Over time, they suffered from frequent illnesses, and newborns often had deformities.
Zeng Duo was one of the few healthy children in her generation, having witnessed too many similar tragedies.
When she was about to come of age, she learned about the profession of Ruin Hunter from a passing caravan and chose to leave with them, hoping to find a better settlement where everyone suffering could relocate.
Her efforts suffered setbacks from the very beginning. After leaving Chuchun Town, the caravan suddenly turned hostile and sold her to a slave owner.
Fortunately, she didn't suffer much before the slaves revolted. She took the opportunity to escape and entered a large town.
What she saw and heard afterward strengthened her ideal, and she gradually became a true Ruin Hunter.
During this process, she was infected in the North Shore Wastelands, and her heart and a few other places developed certain deformities.
Unlike the people from her hometown, she found that the deformities brought more advantages, making her more enduring and explosive, quickly becoming an excellent warrior.
During her travels, she had returned to Chuchun Town several times. A year ago, when she thought she was about to achieve her goal, she suddenly discovered that the town seemed to be controlled by a team of soldiers from "Initial City." They were conducting some unsavory experiments there because the town had many infected or genetically deformed individuals.
Zeng Duo, who had already found a new settlement, worked hard to save Chuchun Town. Unfortunately, her body began to show problems, and the situation quickly deteriorated.
After a diagnosis at a black market clinic, Zeng Duo learned that the previous deformity was not without its drawbacks. It had been hiding and slowly fermenting until it was beyond repair.
In despair, Zeng Duo had the idea of selling her organs to find helpers.
She didn't expect to save the entire Chuchun Town anymore, just hoping to save as many townspeople as possible.
Han Wanghuo had been preparing for this for some time. Weapons, ammunition, various supplies, and reliable helpers were not easy to obtain.
"Since I have agreed, it means it's fair," Han Wanghuo thought for a moment, deliberately putting on a cold face, "To me, my life is more important than the lives of everyone in your entire town combined."
Zeng Duo didn't repeat her previous words, and nodded slightly:
"Anyway, I'm idle, so someone has to cook.
"I also need to eat."
Han Wanghuo didn't stop her. He watched Zeng Duo take the paper bag containing the ingredients and head towards the kitchen.
Before entering, Zeng Duo turned back and hesitated, saying:
"Rest more, don't overwork yourself, it will accelerate the deterioration of your condition.
"Yeah, I don't want you to give out before you complete your mission."
"Then I will make a desperate move in advance to see if I can knock you out and drag you to the clinic…" Han Wanghuo wanted to say this to scare her, but in the end, he didn't say it, just nodded almost imperceptibly.
Zeng Duo first processed the ingredients, and waited until almost evening before making three dishes in an orderly manner.
Han Wanghuo picked up a slice of seared plum blossom meat, looked at Zeng Duo sitting next to him, eating yesterday's leftovers, and frowned:
"Don't you need to do this?"
Zeng Duo swallowed the rice and said quickly:
"Can't waste it."
As Han Wanghuo opened his mouth to speak, a similar scene flashed through his mind from the previous days.
And each time, he couldn't convince Zeng Duo.
This woman, although not tall, was stubborn beyond imagination.
So, Han Wanghuo chose to focus on eating.
…………
Hearing Long Yuehong's words, Jiang Baimian was first happy, then hesitated for a few seconds, and said as if it were nothing:
"Didn't see him.
"He may have turned to another street. Well, we'll look for him after we finish here."
She was worried that she and the others were still in the "Virtual World," which would drag Han Wanghuo down.
Now that she knew he had been in the vicinity, it wouldn't be too late to ask after getting rid of the current situation and returning to her original appearance.
Long Yuehong also understood this problem, and as a bodyguard and driver, he only needed to answer with one word:
"Okay."
Shang Jianyao looked at the car window on Jiang Baimian's side with a look of regret, and took the opportunity to order Long Yuehong:
"Drive faster."
According to the plan, Long Yuehong drove the vehicle towards a building not far away, as if to enter the underground parking lot there.
At this time, the area was still without power, and the cause of the accident had not yet been found. The underground parking lot was dark, with only emergency lights in some places.
Taking advantage of the lack of light around, Long Yuehong pretended to be casual and turned off the headlights.
In an instant, a dark and enclosed space formed inside the car.
Jiang Baimian, Shang Jianyao, and Long Yuehong did not feel any other anomalies.
This showed that they had not been covered by the "Virtual World" for some time.
—This plan also used the fact that the master of the "Virtual World" had claustrophobia to test whether they were still in a hallucination.
Before the action, they couldn't determine the specific cost of the other party, but based on various guesses, they came up with different methods. Of course, if the guesses were inaccurate, Jiang Baimian and others would not be able to "approach" Marcus, unable to backtrack his memory, and could directly switch to the surrender segment.
Long Yuehong turned on the headlights again, seizing the opportunity to let the vehicle leave from another exit.
Next, they got rid of the imaginary tracking, changed vehicles according to the plan, and removed the disguise.
…………
Inside the noble box, the power outage did not affect Marcus and others' enthusiasm for watching the gladiatorial combat.
The gladiator named Joey faced an ice-lander slave today, and finally killed the opponent at the cost of injury.
After the clapping and shouting subsided, a noble's phone rang.
His friend told him:
"Some 'rats' are causing trouble again, a large area of the city is without power..."
Before the noble could ask for details, he suddenly heard a buzzing sound from the phone.
The signal here seemed to be having problems too!
Vaguely, he seemed to feel some kind of anger.
On the other side, Marcus, who also knew the news, suddenly turned grim.
…………
Back in the safe house, the four members of the "Old Task Force" who had reunited turned their attention to Shang Jianyao.
"Is there any problem with the remaining power of the 'Ring of Blindness'?" Jiang Baimian didn't rush to ask about the harvest, but first asked with concern.
—Shang Jianyao had transferred the remaining aura inside the "Ring of Blindness" into his "Mind World."
This is a taboo in the field of Awakened, because it is very likely that the owner of the corresponding aura will locate your "Mind World" and descend directly.
Those "Mind Corridor" level Awakened are doing similar things in the "Mind Corridor."
Because of this, Shang Jianyao was able to hide it from the master of the "Virtual World."
Shang Jianyao smiled nonchalantly:
"It's okay, I locked it up with the remaining power of the 'Bead of Destiny'. Maybe they will fight first."
Ho, use one evil to suppress another… Jiang Baimian slandered in her heart, then turned to ask:
"What did you gain?"
Shang Jianyao seriously talked about the words left by Marcus's mother, focusing on:
First, be wary of "Mechanical Paradise" and do not trust "Source Brain";
Second, be careful of the Eighth Research Institute;
Third, stay away from Aviya, she has something very dangerous and remarkable;
Fourth, Wasteland No. 13 Ruins has an Old World laboratory, and the passphrase is "Messiah".
After listening to Shang Jianyao's retelling, Genava was silent. He didn't know where exactly the "Source Brain" could not be trusted.
Jiang Baimian glanced at this intelligent robot and said with consideration:
"Round and round, we're back to the Eighth Research Institute.
"Also, it seems that Orei does have some secrets. I don't know if he hid these secrets with Aviya, or in the laboratory of Wasteland No. 13 Ruins...
"Well, his some research results are probably handled in this way too."
And Orei is an expert in artificial intelligence and robots.