The Hunter's Guild in Initial City was located in the Red Giant Wolf District, northwest of the city, on a bustling street.

It had its own five-story building, with a hall several times larger than its counterpart in Wild Grass City. However, it wasn't as computerized, with only twenty machines available for hunters to independently view and accept tasks. The rest was handled through large screens and windows.

This led to the local Hunter's Guild employing a large number of people, allowing many to make a living by explaining tasks to relic hunters who couldn't understand the words. The entire hall was crowded and noisy.

Bai Chen informed a receptionist that they had information to sell to the guild. Soon, she was led through the hall and up to the second floor.

During this process, Genava inevitably attracted a lot of attention. However, Initial City had a higher frequency of robots than other places, and many relic hunter teams had such a member, so no one found it strange.

Second floor, room 205.

Bai Chen, Long Yuehong, and Genava met an old man with a prominent nose, slightly graying hair, and a black robe.

He was probably in his fifties, and his light blue eyes reflected the appearance of the two people in front of him:

"What information do you have to sell to the guild?"

Before Bai Chen could answer, Genava, who was struggling to keep the chair from creaking, asked:

"How should I address you?"

The old man smiled:

"It's rare to meet such a polite robot."

Most robots prioritize following their master's instructions.

Hearing this remark, Long Yuehong thought, "This is bad," and quickly said to Genava:

"Who taught you to ask someone's name directly without considering the context?"

Genava's eyes flashed red:

"Wei said it, he said being polite is important."

As expected... Long Yuehong wasn't surprised at all.

He asked that question to guide the old man to think, "This robot was taught badly by its owner," rather than, "This robot might be from 'Mechanical Paradise' and is a sentient being."

"Don't always listen to him, his brain isn't like a normal person's." Long Yuehong rarely had the opportunity to speak ill of Shang Jianyao behind his back, so he wouldn't let it go.

The old man raised his hand and pressed down:

"It's not a bad thing to be polite.

"My name is Friedrich."

Bai Chen then nodded slightly:

"Mr. Friedrich, we have information about the white giant wolf in the North Shore Mountains."

"Is that so?" Friedrich was a little surprised. "You just came back from the North Shore Mountains?"

"No." Bai Chen took a neatly folded piece of paper from her pocket. "We encountered an enemy similar to that white giant wolf before. We believe there should be some similarities between the two, and we can use this to gain useful information."

Friedrich tapped the table surface with his right index finger, pondered for a few seconds, and said:

"So, you can't be sure that this information will be useful?"

"No." Bai Chen didn't deny it. "But at the same time, you can't be sure it won't be useful."

This conversation was like a tongue twister. Xiaobai's Red River language is much better than mine... Long Yuehong muttered silently.

He only dared to call Bai Chen by her nickname in his heart.

The same went for "Da Bai".

Only "Wei" would he call out a few times from time to time. Anyway, he and Shang Jianyao were used to mocking each other. The only thing he needed to consider was whether he could withstand the other's linguistic retaliation afterward.

As for "Lao Ge", there was no teasing meaning, so he didn't think it mattered.

Friedrich retracted his right hand and said with a smile:

"This makes me feel like I'm gambling."

"But you are the house." Bai Chen replied calmly.

Relic hunters need to consider the consequences of selling information directly to the guild.

This is not a one-time deal. If the guild gets the information, reads it, and finds that you have defrauded them, they will lightly demand the return of the reward, deduct a certain amount of credit points, and add a corresponding record. In severe cases, they will add you to the blacklist and even issue a mission to capture you.

Individuals are always small compared to the guild. As long as they want to continue working as relic hunters, few people cheat in this regard.

Of course, there are also situations where they have to cheat the guild because they are in a hurry. In that case, they can only consider becoming "dark hunters", taking and submitting tasks without going through the guild, like the earliest relic hunters.

Friedrich smiled:

"You are very calm.

"Tell me, how much reward do you want?"

"400 Aolai." Bai Chen quoted a price.

This is enough for a family of three in the Green Olive District to live for a year. If they are frugal, they can even use it for two years.

But compared to the price of military exoskeletons and mechanical arms, which are often in the "tens of thousands", this is a drop in the bucket—these kinds of supplies are often available but unaffordable.

For the "Old Task Force", this information was mainly to fill their shy wallets, after all, they didn't provide all the information related to Qiao Chu, and they didn't fully understand the capabilities of this special envoy from the Eighth Research Institute.

Friedrich thought for a while and said:

"I hope it's worth the price."

He immediately picked up the phone on the table, dialed a number, and asked the other party to go through the process now and approve 400 Aolai.

After he hung up, Bai Chen pushed the folded paper over.

Friedrich picked up the reading glasses placed next to him, unfolded the paper, and read it carefully:

"...We once encountered a person named Qiao Chu, whose reward amount in the guild is one ton of flour... He can make people like him, be obsessed with him, and obey his orders involuntarily... This is suspected to be a price, not an Awakened ability... His known abilities include 'forcibly changing the target's hobbies', 'making people depressed', and the rest are unknown... If the giant wolf in the North Shore Mountains did not gain the ability to charm others through mutation, then it needs to be considered that it has other abilities..."

Friedrich raised his head and looked at Bai Chen and Long Yuehong:

"You've encountered Qiao Chu?

"You were able to get rid of him and survive until now?"

He was surprised by the latter.

Bai Chen pointed to Genava next to her and said without changing her expression:

"He was there."

"He?" Friedrich asked back.

In Red River language, "he" and "she" are different words, and you can tell as soon as you hear them.

Bai Chen casually explained:

"I'm a wasteland wanderer. My parents died early, and I only survived to adulthood thanks to an intelligent robot."

"I see..." Friedrich said, expressing his understanding.

Long Yuehong listened from the sidelines and secretly clicked his tongue. He didn't expect Xiaobai to be as good at lying as the team leader.

There were no robots at that time!

Moreover, it wasn't Genava who took care of her when she was growing up!

I don't know if Xiaobai was originally like this, or if she was influenced by the team leader... Long Yuehong fell into thought.

At this time, Friedrich exclaimed:

"It seems that charm doesn't work on robots. This is also very important information.

"Okay, your information is indeed worth 400 Aolai."

Jiang Baimian set 400 Aolai mainly with reference to the previous reward: one kilogram of ordinary-grade flour costs about 4 to 6 Delaisse in Initial City, which is equivalent to 0.5 Aolai.

Of course, that's in disaster-free years. In places like Initial City and Wild Grass City, it's like this. In many settlements in the Ashlands, one kilogram of flour can be worth a life in some cases.

In general, 400 Aolai is equivalent to 800 kilograms of ordinary-grade flour, which is similar to the previous reward price.

Soon, Bai Chen received a full 400 Aolai in banknotes.

She counted out 50 Aolai from it and pushed it to Friedrich, saying:

"I want to commission a task."

Friedrich pointed to the floor:

"Task commissions are downstairs."

Bai Chen didn't stop and continued:

"The content is to help us find a friend. He is very sensitive and also a relic hunter. If he sees someone posting a task to find him, he will definitely hide. We can only ask the guild for help and privately entrust it to some relic hunters with enough connections in the local area.

"We don't need to get detailed information, just tell us where he lives or which area he frequents."

——The Hunter's Guild always has a vice president who directly manages this kind of confidential task that is not publicly released.

Friedrich took the stack of banknotes and weighed it in his hand, saying:

"With only this much reward, it's hard to say how long it will take. No one will mobilize everyone they know to help find someone for 50 Aolai."

"That's not a problem." Bai Chen took out another piece of paper.

On it was Jiang Baimian's lifelike depiction of Han Wanghuo's appearance.

At the same time, she also marked the eye color, character name, and other information next to it.

After entrusting this matter, Bai Chen led Long Yuehong and Genava back to the first floor hall.

They casually browsed what tasks were available recently, without considering accepting any, mainly to understand the current situation in Initial City.

Leaving the hall and returning to the street, they were about to turn to another place when they suddenly saw a convoy driving by on the road ahead.

These were all sedans, deep black in color, and the glass seemed to have been treated, so the interior couldn't be seen from the outside.

Such a large convoy gave Long Yuehong a feeling of imposing manner, and he subconsciously held his breath.

He glanced at Bai Chen and found her staring blankly ahead.

"What's wrong?" Long Yuehong asked after the convoy disappeared at the end of the road.

"Nothing." Bai Chen shook her head.

…………

Abundant Harvest Bathhouse, inside a room.

"You think this matter is related to the 'Anti-Intellectualism Church'?" Jiang Baimian asked back, thinking after listening to Shang Jianyao's description. "Zhao family was behind the assassination of Xu Liyan? That's not right, Zhao Zhengqi and Zhao Yide were also in the aristocratic council hall, they would have been blown up together! Is there also a conflict within the Zhao family?"

Shang Jianyao didn't respond to Jiang Baimian's question and said to himself:

"There are also a few people, who exist in Zhao Shouren's memories. They were born on the manor, grew up on the manor, but they look like they were adopted from another family. Many details don't match up, and they often go in and out."