Jiang Bai Mian instinctively made an "ah" shape with her mouth, but quickly closed it, without making a sound.
She refocused her gaze forward, smoothly stepping past a clump of bushes, and then, as if casually, she smiled:
"I always feel like I might have a hidden talent, which is to make people feel close, feel at ease around me, and be willing to share some of the troubles that have been bottled up in their hearts."
"It's not like it's something that has to be kept strictly confidential," Shang Jian Yao disagreed with Jiang Bai Mian's statement, but he was thus freed from the scenario created by the previous words.
"Haha, just kidding." Jiang Bai Mian nodded as if in thought, "Actually, it's because we've been through two crises together, and you've exposed the secret of being an Awakened, so we have a pretty good level of trust with each other. Have you ever heard the saying that the way to quickly bring two people closer together is to have them share a small secret? Plus, we're comrades in distress."
The previously serious Shang Jian Yao suddenly laughed:
"How are you sure that this trust wasn't created by my Awakened abilities?"
"..." Jiang Bai Mian carefully recalled and found that she couldn't rule out the possibility, after all, the scene of Shang Jian Yao shaking hands and saying goodbye to the mechanical monk Jing Fa was too impressive, and Shang Jian Yao had also said that if a cycle of proof could be formed in the surrounding interpersonal interactions, the people affected would hardly be able to detect the abnormality on their own, and only when they were separated from the corresponding environment would they be able to discover that something was wrong.
"Haha, just kidding," Shang Jian Yao responded to her in Jiang Bai Mian's manner.
Jiang Bai Mian turned her head and rolled her eyes at him:
"I almost drew my gun, you know that?"
She withdrew her gaze and said to herself:
"Although you were indeed joking, I have to guard against similar situations... set up a few logical verifications for myself?
"Um... the simplest way is to record key information on paper and in chips every day, and look at it before going to bed. This way, if there are contradictions before and after, I can immediately wake up. I have to say, diaries are very useful after all."
"An Awakened's abilities aren't omnipotent," Shang Jian Yao added.
Jiang Bai Mian didn't say anything more and continued to search for clues in this hilly area with Shang Jian Yao.
About an hour later, she looked around and said:
"The surrounding area is too large, and the environment is complex. Just relying on the two of us to walk step by step, we won't be able to complete an effective search in ten days or half a month."
Shang Jian Yao didn't speak, because he saw that the team leader still had a smile on her face, obviously she already had a solution.
Sure enough, Jiang Bai Mian turned her gaze to him and said with a smile:
"Let's go back to the hill where we launched the emergency flare before."
Shang Jian Yao's heart skipped a beat, and he vaguely grasped something.
Jiang Bai Mian continued:
"We'll definitely encounter a lot of ruin hunters and wasteland wanderers there. It's a good opportunity to ask them for information and see if there have been any large bandit groups or dangerous teams active in the surrounding area recently."
Speaking of this, she showed the same smile she had after severely injuring Jing Fa:
"If you were the leader of the attacking team, and you saw that something abnormal had happened in the place where you had done a big deal and deliberately erased the traces of the team, wouldn't you send some unrelated people to the area where the emergency flare was launched to investigate the specific situation? Anyway, there will definitely be a large number of ruin hunters and wasteland wanderers going there, and if they're mixed in, no one will be able to tell."
"Then, if we can use this to find out which big force is behind Black Rat Town, we can also make some targeted preparations in advance."
Shang Jian Yao suddenly understood:
"They won't send their core members to investigate, or even find people who are subordinate to them. The most likely thing is that they'll directly hire real wasteland wanderers who are active nearby."
This way, even if it's a trap, there won't be any problems, just like no one can find a drop of water in a lake that is unique in essence but has no unusual appearance.
After Shang Jian Yao understood, he asked with a slight doubt:
"Team Leader, you should have thought of this a long time ago, why didn't we just guard there?"
"Where would those ruin hunters and wasteland wanderers come from so quickly? It's meaningless to wait there idly, it's better to have you familiarize yourselves with searching." Jiang Bai Mian turned her wrist and looked at the black electronic watch, "It's about time, let's go over."
When they returned to the hill where the emergency flare was launched, Shang Jian Yao realized that the previous search was also leaning towards this side—after the two slightly changed direction, it only took ten minutes to walk to their destination.
In other words, Jiang Bai Mian hadn't just thought of the relevant issues on the spur of the moment, but had planned it in advance, and even the search route was planned in advance.
After observing for a few minutes, Shang Jian Yao and Jiang Bai Mian found the best position, climbed a tree, and monitored the several roads leading to this hilly area.
After about a quarter of an hour, ruin hunters and wasteland wanderers arrived one after another and went to the top of the hill.
They were all quite careful, clearly divided from each other but not infringing on each other, after all, it was still uncertain whether there would be any gains around the anomaly, and it would be too foolish to start a fight first.
After a while, Jiang Bai Mian patted Shang Jian Yao on the shoulder and pointed to the road on the left.
She didn't speak, because she couldn't be sure how loud her voice was, so she could only use gestures to signal.
Shang Jian Yao looked over and saw two sneaky and timid male wasteland wanderers.
It was impossible to tell their exact age from their appearance. The common point was that their skin was rough, chapped, and very tanned. Their hair was greasy and disheveled, and the beards on their faces had not been shaved for an unknown amount of time, and the surface was covered with various stains of unknown origin.
One of them was wearing a dark blue holey sweater, with a greasy and stiff shirt of unrecognizable color inside, and a black garment that didn't fit well over his waist, and military-green rubber shoes on his feet. He had a black pistol with a metallic sheen on his waist and a long, flat blade in his hand.
Shang Jian Yao thought it looked a lot like the watermelon knives in the textbooks.
The other one was tightly wrapped in a black old cotton-padded jacket, and through the obvious big holes, you could see that the cotton inside was compressed into a mass, black and tight. He didn't seem to have any guns. He had a sharpened dagger on his waist, and he was holding a baseball bat in both hands, and a dirty, extremely shriveled pocket was draped over his shoulder.
"Yes, is there a problem?" Shang Jian Yao asked in a low voice.
This was almost no different from the wasteland wanderers who had come before, except that they were a little more shabby.
"I..." Jiang Bai Mian made a sound, her tone revealing a clear question.
Shang Jian Yao instantly understood what the team leader meant and quickly said:
"A little lower."
After two "adjustments," Jiang Bai Mian finally suppressed her voice:
"Don't you think these two wasteland wanderers are too poorly equipped?"
"Isn't it normal for wasteland wanderers to be poorly equipped?" Shang Jian Yao asked back.
"Yes." Jiang Bai Mian didn't deny it, she looked at the two wanderers and said thoughtfully, "The key is that there is a contradiction between their behavior and their equipment.
"Under normal circumstances, wasteland wanderers with only a small pistol and a few cold weapons would not dare to be among the first to arrive at a place where something abnormal has occurred. As long as there is a fight, they have almost no ability to protect themselves.
"For this kind of wasteland wanderer, they will come over after half a day or even a day to see if they can find some leftovers. At that time, the opponents in the competition are almost the same, and they won't be completely helpless."
Shang Jian Yao listened and nodded slightly:
"It's like many animals that feed on the rotten corpses left by predators after hunting.
"In other words, there is a certain probability that these two wasteland wanderers were forced to come here?"
And who would force two wasteland wanderers with little ability to investigate anomalies for no reason?
Jiang Bai Mian was imparting teaching in practice, and said with a smile upon hearing this:
"Yes.
"Can you make them friendly and tell us the relevant situation directly?"
Shang Jian Yao looked at the two wasteland wanderers who were getting closer and closer, and said frankly:
"If there's only one, no problem.
"If both of them are there, there's a good chance that they'll witness each other, causing the 'reasoning' to fail.
"If they're separated, affect one first, then get them together and affect the other one, that's also okay."
Jiang Bai Mian made an "ok" gesture:
"That's simple.
"Swap guns."
After saying that, she and Shang Jian Yao exchanged grenade launchers and assault rifles.
In the next second, Jiang Bai Mian suddenly jumped down and landed in front of the two wasteland wanderers.
After landing, she quickly raised her assault rifle and coldly pointed it at the man in the holey sweater with a pistol on his waist.
Almost at the same time, she slightly twisted her waist and kicked out her right leg with a "snap," like a suddenly tightened whip.
This kick undoubtedly didn't hit, but it scared the man with the baseball bat to retreat sharply and fall to the ground.
He glanced at the assault rifle in Jiang Bai Mian's hand and didn't hesitate to abandon his companion, scrambling and stumbling and running away into the distance without looking back.
The man with the pistol and watermelon knife was always pointed at by the assault rifle and didn't dare to move.
At this time, Shang Jian Yao followed and jumped down, smiling and saying:
"Don't be nervous.
"We don't have any malicious intentions."
While signaling Jiang Bai Mian to lower her gun, he took advantage of the man's confusion and said:
"Look, you're here to search for information, and we're here to search for information.
"You're human, and we're human.
"So..."
The man's expression gradually became animated and eventually showed a smile:
"Brothers!"
When he called out this title, he subconsciously glanced at Jiang Bai Mian, only to see that she had put away her assault rifle and didn't show any hostility, so he became even more convinced of his own reasoning and judgment.
"Brothers!" Shang Jian Yao imitated the other party and greeted him enthusiastically, "Who sent you here?"
ps: Asking for recommendation tickets~