On the other side of the motel camp, inside the room of slave trader Huo Zhi.
He gazed out the glass window and said to himself:
“That team that approached us earlier actually has a robot. We can’t underestimate their strength…”
After pondering for a few seconds, Huo Zhi said to his subordinate next to him:
“A Qiang, while it’s not completely dark yet, go and find out what this team is all about. Better safe than sorry.”
A Qiang was relatively short and looked quite sturdy. Upon hearing this, he said with some difficulty:
“Boss, I know you’re cautious, afraid they didn’t come to check us out for no reason, but at this hour, Redstone Town is closed. Where am I going to find someone? The people here are as hard to find as ghosts.”
Huo Zhi knew that this wasn’t an excuse, so he thought for a moment and said:
“Go ask at the Vigilant Church, find a familiar guard.”
They often needed to send slaves outside the “Underground Ark,” and this would inevitably pass through the Vigilant Church.
“Yes, Boss.” A Qiang didn’t say anything more. He went out, found a car, and headed straight to the north of the city ruins.
Huo Zhi sat down and patiently waited for his trusted aide to return.
When the sun had completely set and darkness enveloped the earth, the car that A Qiang had driven finally appeared at the entrance of the motel camp.
With a grave expression, he got out of the car, entered Huo Zhi’s room, looked left and right, and said in a hushed voice:
“Boss, that team is quite something!”
“How so?” Huo Zhi stood up abruptly.
A Qiang swallowed and said:
“A guard at the church told me that the team had previously dealt with a very powerful Awakened, saving the entire Redstone Town from the hands of the Second People Alliance.
“If you had to compare it to something, it would be that they could destroy a Redstone Town that didn't have the Vigilant Church, and at that time, they hadn't obtained the robot yet!”
“This…” Huo Zhi listened, his eyes forgetting to blink.
As far as he knew, although Redstone Town had many internal conflicts, even without the protection of the Vigilant Church, its own firepower was strong enough to rank first in the Angry Lake area. It could easily crush countless convoys like his.
So a small team of four people could be compared to such a large settlement?
After a long silence, Huo Zhi asked to confirm:
“Does this include the power of the ‘Underground Ark’?”
“It shouldn’t.” A Qiang answered truthfully. “The people at the church aren’t too clear on what the real strength of the ‘Underground Ark’ is like.”
Huo Zhi slowly nodded, and “hissed”:
“Regardless of whether the church guard was exaggerating, that team is not simple.
“They should be the kind that four or five people can destroy a settlement, maybe they all reached the ‘Veteran Hunter’ level, not much worse than those incredibly powerful Ruins Hunter teams we know.”
Speaking of this, Huo Zhi let out a breath:
“Fortunately, a team of this level definitely wouldn’t look down on our little bit of stuff. It’s just a few dozen slaves, even if Mr. DiMarco offered a high price, it wouldn't be enough to exchange for the supplies they’re interested in.
“They probably sensed some movement, and habitually came over to take a look and confirm the situation.”
A Qiang was persuaded by his boss and asked worriedly:
“Then should we still get everyone out for a lecture tomorrow morning?”
“No need.” Huo Zhi shook his head without hesitation. “I’ll personally go into their rooms and talk to them one by one. We absolutely can’t disturb them.”
While saying these words, his voice unconsciously lowered a little.
Seeing that A Qiang still seemed a little uneasy, Huo Zhi smiled and said:
“Would a team of this level deal with us for a few dozen slaves?
“What kind of status do they have? Would they be short of slaves?”
A Qiang “mm”ed:
“I’ll arrange the night patrol.”
…………
In the middle of the night, Jiang BaiMian woke up groggily, turned over, and grabbed the water bag on the bedside table.
Just then, she saw a figure sitting quietly on the bed across from her.
Jiang BaiMian instantly sobered up.
She looked closely and found that it was indeed Shang JianYao.
“Why aren’t you asleep so late?” Jiang BaiMian asked, both surprised and amused.
Shang JianYao supported himself on the bed with both hands, forcibly turning his body around.
In the faint moonlight shining in from outside the window, he answered with bright eyes:
“I’m thinking about feasible solutions.”
“You’re really serious…” Jiang BaiMian didn’t know how to comment, so she just said casually.
She then asked:
“Do you have any ideas yet?”
Shang JianYao shook his head:
“Not yet.”
“Oh…” Jiang BaiMian relaxed.
Before she finished speaking, Shang JianYao added:
“I have too many inspirations.”
“…” The smile on Jiang BaiMian’s face became a little strained.
Shang JianYao continued to speak on his own:
“I am now considering this matter together with passing the third island.
“Isn't it said that one is afraid of giving everything but still not being able to change anything? Then do something difficult in reality and strive to change some of the cruel states that you can't stand.
“Saving all of humanity, of course, must start with saving small groups one by one, starting with small changes one by one.
“When that time comes, I hope to have some gains that can be fed back into the mind world.”
Jiang BaiMian listened quietly, hugged the quilt, and adjusted her posture so that she could lie down more comfortably.
“This idea… is really good.” She said factually, “The key to defeating the third island may really be linking up with reality, breaking the doubts in one's heart through the affirmation of reality.”
Speaking of this, she changed the subject:
“However, you don't have to pick such a high-difficulty task from the start, do you?”
Shang JianYao laughed, his face hazy in the moonlight:
“I'm not considering feasible solutions just to defeat the third island.
“This is just a side effect.”
At this moment, Jiang BaiMian inexplicably felt that his smile was like a child's, very clean and pure.
Jiang BaiMian opened her mouth, then closed it again, and complained after a while:
“You can wait until dawn to think about it, it’s the middle of the night, go to sleep, get enough rest to come up with good ideas.”
She wanted to grab a pillow and throw it over to hit Shang JianYao, to increase the strength of her words, but considering that there was only one pillow, she gave up the idea.
“Mm.” Shang JianYao pondered for a while and nodded.
Pa!
He fell straight down and stretched out his legs.
Jiang BaiMian wrapped the quilt tightly and changed to a position with her back facing the bed opposite.
In the quiet night, she suddenly said in a low voice:
“Sometimes, I’m really a little envious of your purity…”
Shang JianYao replied in a serious tone:
“This was exchanged for a doctor's certificate.”
“…” Jiang BaiMian chose to close her eyes.
…………
The next morning, after a simple breakfast, the Old Task Force, seeing off the residents of Redstone Town who were repairing the motel camp's faulty circuits, drove the jeep to the underground shopping mall in the park.
This was their original plan, to visit the Visa Trading Company to discuss high-performance batteries.
The one on duty at the Visa Trading Company was still the lady wearing the blue demon mask but as timid as a rabbit.
“G, g, good morning.” Obviously, this lady recognized the former Redstone Town tyrant.
Jiang BaiMian asked with a smile:
“Which butler is here today?”
“Butler Ulrich.” The lady in charge of reception answered honestly.
The main character… Jiang BaiMian thought to herself that her luck was good, while pressing the delicate monk mask she was wearing on her face:
“Please tell him that we would like to visit Mr. Ulrich.”
“Okay.” The lady hurriedly took out the walkie-talkie, avoided Shang JianYao and the others, and started talking to someone.
Gennava, wearing sunglasses, looked at her figure mostly obscured by the wall and asked Jiang BaiMian and the others:
“Do you need me to repeat their conversation?”
“You can hear it?” Shang JianYao looked curious.
Unfortunately, it was all covered by the monkey mask.
Gennava nodded:
“At this distance, with this volume, it’s within my monitoring range.”
Jiang BaiMian, while amusedly sighing that the Old Task Force's average hearing had been significantly improved, asked thoughtfully:
“Do you usually actively turn on monitoring of the surrounding environment?”
“Not when in a safe environment, but when performing tasks or in similar scenarios, yes.” Gennava answered in concise language. “Not turning it on is mainly to save power and protect the battery. The endurance and lifespan of high-performance batteries are still key factors restricting the number of us Artificial Intelligences and social development. Therefore, Source Brain has been constantly searching for information from the Old World in the fields of Nuclear Power Miniaturization Technology, Ultra-High-Performance Battery Technology, and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research, hoping to turn these into reality.”
As expected of an Artificial Intelligence, he can repeat almost word for word what I heard back then… Having a large database and advanced search algorithms is really amazing… Long YueHong was deeply impressed by Gennava's memory.
At this moment, the lady in charge of reception at Visa Trading Company came back, trembling slightly as if facing a nemesis:
“Butler Ulrich invites you to the conference room.”
Jiang BaiMian, Shang JianYao and the others followed the directions and found a conference room, which was furnished with a long table, a dozen chairs, and an LCD screen.
The lady in charge of reception turned on the LCD screen, adjusted its status, and then exited the room, closing the door tightly.
Gennava then said:
“This is a product of our Mechanical Paradise…”
Before he finished speaking, he saw Shang JianYao raise his index finger and put it to his lips, “shhh”ing.
Gennava immediately stopped talking.
Just two or three seconds later, an LCD screen displayed a stern man in his forties wearing a black suit and a black bow tie.
He was one of DiMarco’s butlers, Ulrich.
“Mr. Butler, aren’t you at the company?” Jiang BaiMian asked, amused.
Ulrich replied calmly:
“There is an Awakened among you, and he has shown very strong aggressiveness.”
Back then, when Shang JianYao restrained DiMarco's guards, he had exposed Hand Action Deficit.
As for aggressiveness, it undoubtedly referred to Shang JianYao's behavior of throwing grenades to scare people.
Speaking of this, Ulrich clasped his hands together and placed them in front of his chest. Then, he took a step back:
“Distance is our friend.”