Shang Jianyao and the others met the captain of the 23rd Squad outside Black Rat Town. He was in his thirties, dressed in gray-black clothing, and wore a nameplate with two more stars.
“Wang Beicheng.” He extended his right hand to Jiang Baimian.
Jiang Baimian also reached out and gave a light shake:
“Jiang Baimian.”
“I’ve heard a lot about you.” Wang Beicheng said with a smile, withdrawing his hand.
He was about the same height as Shang Jianyao, with handsome features, but his skin was deeply tanned and had a dusty gray appearance.
“I hope it's good fame.” Jiang Baimian said modestly, then introduced Shang Jianyao and the others, “These are the members of our ‘Old Task Force’.”
Wang Beicheng was not arrogant at all, greeting Bai Chen, Shang Jianyao, and Long Yuehong in turn.
Then, he refocused his gaze on Jiang Baimian:
“To be honest, we were all surprised when we heard that you applied to form a new ‘Old Task Force.’ This is one of the most dangerous missions. There was absolutely no need for you to do it.”
Hearing “one of the most dangerous missions,” Long Yuehong’s face involuntarily paled slightly.
Jiang Baimian laughed:
“This is my personal pursuit. There are still some idealists on the Ashlands.”
“Sometimes, you’re purely enviable.” Wang Beicheng said with a mixture of a smile and a sigh, “Unfortunately, people like us have wives and children and can no longer afford to be willful.”
Their pleasantries ended there, and Jiang Baimian began to talk about her own experiences, hoping that her colleague could obtain useful information from her account.
She first mentioned hearing howls on their first night camping in the wild, suspecting that something abnormal had occurred north of Moon-Ru Station. Then, she skipped over the battle with the wasteland bandits wearing exoskeletons and didn't even talk about her experiences in Shuiwei Town. She only briefly mentioned encountering a Black Marsh Iron Serpent and successfully killing it—the Black Marsh Iron Serpent's hide was on the roof of the jeep, which was easy to see.
After recounting the “preliminary events,” Jiang Baimian directly talked about their trip to the Steel Plant Ruins, repeating the information provided by Harris Brown, the bald Ruins Hunter, word for word—except for slight differences in wording, the content remained unchanged.
Wang Beicheng listened attentively, and the polite smile on his face gradually disappeared.
Next, Jiang Baimian shifted the topic to the mechanical monk, Jingfa.
At first, she truthfully relayed the conversation between Shang Jianyao, Long Yuehong, and Jingfa, emphasizing the “Telepathy” ability, which was suspected to be an Awakened ability.
But when she got to the part where Jingfa caught up and controlled the four of them using the “Hungry Ghost Path” ability, Jiang Baimian subtly concealed Shang Jianyao’s performance. She only said that she had determined that Jingfa hated women not because the 'Eternal Life' technology had defects, but because his lecherous nature didn't match his physical condition, leading to psychological distortions. Then, she deliberately provoked him, causing him to lose control and begin to abuse them. Next, she seized the opportunity to insert her left index finger into an interface on Jingfa's neck, using the high-voltage current stored in her electric eel bionic limb to destroy his main control system and physical structure.
Here, Jiang Baimian deliberately modified the facts. She didn't mention that she was worried that Jingfa had emergency backup systems and redundant physical structures, so she only wanted to use her 'Golden Finger' to invade the mechanical monk's internal information network and directly control him.
Then, she skipped the middle process and grafted the subsequent ending onto this point—because Jingfa had emergency backup systems and redundant physical structures, he still escaped from the jeep after being severely injured and was not destroyed on the spot.
“If it were me, even leading a combat squad, I might not have done as well as you.” After listening to the mechanical monk-related information, Wang Beicheng couldn’t help but exclaim, “A combat robot plus genuine human intelligence plus Awakened abilities is simply a killing machine.”
“This was also forced out of us by pressure. Otherwise, we would have been violated and abused to death by a mechanical monk. Who would believe that?” Jiang Baimian mocked herself, “After escaping from Jingfa, we thought about coming to Black Rat Town to use the radio transceiver to transmit the information we obtained back to the company. On the way, while camping in the wild, we met two strange people, one named Du Heng, who claimed to be an antiquities scholar and historical researcher, and the other from the First City, named Jialuolan, who claimed to be a Daoist…”
Her focus was not on how strange these two people were, but on introducing the part of the Awakened information she had obtained that time.
After that came the ‘Old Task Force’ arriving at Black Rat Town, discovering that it had been slaughtered, and then searching the scene and firing emergency flares.
Jiang Baimian didn't hide the results of her own investigation, pointing out the 'Hyena' bandit group as suspects.
Nearing the end, she talked about True Nightmare, but didn't mention that Shang Jianyao had relied on his Awakened abilities to break free on his own. She only said that they were lucky enough to encounter a shift change at night, and Long Yuehong and Bai Chen noticed something was wrong and woke her and Shang Jianyao up in time.
Finally, she linked True Nightmare with the anomaly north of Moon-Ru Station, and talked about her own conjectures.
“This does seem a bit like some kind of Awakened ability…” Wang Beicheng, who was nearly a cycle older than Shang Jianyao and the others, recalled what he had seen and heard, and said hesitantly, “When I was young, I followed the operations group and participated in a major transaction between large factions. I happened to meet a cult called ‘Dawnstar.’ They both feared and utilized dreams. Back then, the cult member I interacted with was an Awakened who called himself ‘Dream Keeper,’ believing that he was fighting to save people from being devoured by nightmares. One of the nightmare scenarios he described was a bit like what you said.”
Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao exchanged glances before turning to ask Wang Beicheng:
“Didn’t he demonstrate his abilities to you?”
“No.” Wang Beicheng shook his head, “That might be related to how vigilant I was.”
Jiang Baimian thought for a moment and asked:
“Which Kalpa God do they worship?”
Wang Beicheng already knew that Shang Jianyao and the others had obtained information about the Kalpa Gods from the mechanical monk, Jingfa, so he didn’t hide it and answered frankly:
“It’s ‘Dawn.’
“The god in charge of February.
“They call this Kalpa God the light that shines into dreams.”
Speaking of this, Wang Beicheng glanced at the already dimming sky:
“Is there any other information?”
“No.” Jiang Baimian smiled slightly, “My mouth is dry from talking so much.”
Wang Beicheng laughed:
“I won’t say polite words. It’s getting dark. Find a place to camp and rest. Me? I need to quickly arrange for a few reconnaissance teams to go out and scout based on the information you provided. We can’t waste any time.
“Oh, right, when you sleep, it’s best to be watched by a fellow night watchman so that you can be awakened in time if there are any anomalies.”
He didn’t mention whether it would be uncomfortable to sleep like that. On the Ashlands, things like that weren’t a problem. Everyone with experience knew that life was more important than shame, more important than embarrassment.
“Don’t worry, we’re experienced.” Jiang Baimian waved her hand, bid farewell to Wang Beicheng with Shang Jianyao and the others, and returned to the place where the jeep was parked.
After finding a good place and setting up the tents, Long Yuehong finally couldn’t hold back his doubts and asked:
“Team Leader, why did you hide the exoskeleton thing?”
Concealing Shang Jianyao’s secret was their internal consensus, so there was no need to say much about it.
“That would require telling too much. There’s no need for that. We might even have to bring up the Shuiwei Town thing,” Jiang Baimian replied dismissively.
“Didn’t we already discuss reporting the Shuiwei Town thing, but not giving the specific location, only mentioning that we encountered their hunting squad in the wild?” Bai Chen, whose emotional fluctuations were smaller, asked with some concern.
Jiang Baimian laughed:
“No need to rush. This has to wait until we return to the company and report according to the procedure.
“What’s the use of telling Wang Beicheng and their squad? It would only increase the risk of it being leaked.”
“It’s not a big deal if it’s leaked, right?” Bai Chen didn’t quite understand.
Jiang Baimian sighed slightly and pointed her chin at Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong with a smile:
“You guys tell me about the attitude of internal employees towards wasteland wanderers.”
Shang Jianyao, who was responsible for guarding, didn’t hide anything:
“They’re a bit repulsed. They’re afraid that absorbing too many wasteland wanderers will reduce the allocation of resources in various aspects.”
“Yeah, although we don’t have enough manpower, everyone feels that we can get by anyway, and there will be more and more newborns in the future, so there’s no need to absorb a large number of wasteland wanderers.” Long Yuehong glanced at Bai Chen and said in a slightly soft voice.
Jiang Baimian then spread her right hand out to Bai Chen:
“Did you hear that?
“If it’s just absorbing outstanding wasteland wanderers like you sporadically, using your experience, knowledge, and abilities, internal employees don’t object, and even understand it very well. But if we absorb the entire settlement of wasteland wanderers at once, everyone won’t be able to accept it.
“The Security Department’s combat squads and operations squads, although they’re active outside for a long time and know the situation of various settlements, may not lack sympathy, but they’re also people. They also have parents, wives, and children who live inside the company, and they’ll also be affected by various opinions.
“If they leak the news of Shuiwei Town to their relatives and friends before the board of directors makes a decision, and everyone starts discussing this matter, it will easily develop negative effects.”
Bai Chen still didn’t quite understand:
“Can ordinary employees influence the decisions of the board of directors?”
In her opinion, these high-level executives wouldn’t be affected by the opinions of the lower levels.
Jiang Baimian smiled upon hearing this:
“You’re still more accustomed to the wasteland wanderer way of doing things. You’re not very adapted to some of the things inside the company.
“‘Pangu Biology’ isn’t small, but it’s not big either. Which member of the board of directors doesn’t have relatives and friends who are ordinary employees? Moreover, internal stability is very important. This will directly affect the state and position of the combat squads and operations squads.
“If there are various negative opinions, even if the board of directors insists on absorbing the entire Shuiwei Town, there will definitely be differences in the details of the plan:
“Whether to give them all formal employee benefits, or treat them as peripheral vassals, whether to do some splitting and send people to manage them directly, or like Black Rat Town, there will be big differences.”
Bai Chen stopped speaking, lowered her head slightly, and carefully thought about Jiang Baimian’s words.
In her experience as a wasteland wanderer, superiors and those with power have absolute authority.
At this time, Long Yuehong grumbled:
“But I still think this is only one aspect of the reason.”
Because he was already used to it, his muttering was not quiet.
“Maybe the team leader is afraid that Wang Beicheng will requisition our exoskeletons.” Shang Jianyao deliberately glanced at Jiang Baimian and said with a smile.
Jiang Baimian raised her eyebrows slightly:
“Am I afraid of him?”
ps: Asking for recommendation tickets~