Chapter 31: Make a Call and Ask

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It was another morning. The weather was overcast, without a trace of clear sunlight, and dark clouds blanketed the sky.

Lin Yilin opened her eyes at precisely the same time as always, like a robot, and immediately picked up her phone.

After glancing over the intelligence from the previous night, she narrowed her eyes slightly.

...

If there was ever a time when the gray districts of the Great Metropolis were relatively quiet and peaceful, it was surely the stretch between four and six in the morning.

Have you ever seen the Great Metropolis at four in the morning?

Zheng Fan had. There was nothing particularly special about it.

At that hour, even the rowdiest gang members were more or less ready for bed. Daybreak was not far off, and the lives of ordinary people would soon return to their normal rhythm.

That was why Zheng Fan used those hours to take Toast out for a walk.

Toast was so lively and energetic that if it was not taken out regularly, it would throw a tantrum. To prevent it from venting all that energy on the sofa and eventually getting itself torn to shreds by Lin Yilin, Zheng Fan had decided to deal with the problem at its source.

Taking Toast out while the streets were deserted, finding a few vagrants asleep on cardboard boxes, biting them on the backside, and running away afterward—this was more or less Toast’s favorite form of entertainment.

Today, they had played a little longer than usual, because at the dessert shop on East Ding Road, Toast had stormed into the establishment and carried out a fellow member of its kind.

Yes, another piece of toast.

Zheng Fan had no intention of “enlightening” another piece of toast. One was quite enough to raise; with any more, he was afraid he would not be able to manage them all.

Toast had looked exceptionally valiant while rescuing its fellow, but before Zheng Fan could praise it, the creature carried the other piece of toast into a corner and gnawed its “kindred” clean.

The scene had been horrifying. Crumbs were scattered all over the ground.

The Toast-on-Toast Killing Incident. It had eaten every last bit. Terrifying.

“When I turn into a baguette to play with you, do you really want to play with me rather than eat the baguette?” Zheng Fan asked as he avoided the growing crowds and led Toast back toward the agency.

“Arf!”

“Can you really tell the difference? No, wait—even if you can, you’d probably still want to gnaw on me.” Zheng Fan pondered the matter.

Perfect Toast had an abundance of wicked little thoughts.

“Just got back?”

They had not even entered the agency when they happened to run into Lin Yilin, who had arrived punctually for “work.” She was taking out her keys and preparing to open the door.

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“Good morning. I played with Toast a little longer than usual.”

“Good morning. So you played for the entire night?”

“I did take a few hours off in between.” Zheng Fan was no longer surprised that Lin Yilin already knew what had happened the night before.

He might as well think of Miss Lin Yilin as omniscient. That was all there was to it.

She knew everything!

Once they opened the door and entered the agency, Toast immediately dashed inside, found its favorite corner, curled up there, and began to rest. Rescuing its fellow creatures had consumed quite a bit of energy, and eating one had been tiring as well. In any case, Perfect Toast needed a nap.

Lin Yilin went in and sat down in the chair behind her desk, which resembled a throne, then asked, “Have you found Lin De?”

“No. At this point, we do not even know whether he is still alive.” Zheng Fan spread his hands helplessly.

Lin Yilin nodded. “Although I knew Jiang Si was active in that area, and it was only to be expected that you would go looking for her, I did not expect you to run into what was happening there as well.”

Why did that sound exactly like a parent telling a child, “I knew you would secretly play games and watch television the moment I left the house”?

“Would you like me to recount the situation?” Lin Yilin opened her laptop. “Please do.”

Zheng Fan retold everything that had happened the previous night. He described it vividly, piling up florid phrases like a novelist, until the whole account sounded more like an opera performance.

When he finished, he looked at Miss Lin Yilin expectantly, waiting to hear her thoughts.

Lin Yilin pondered for a moment before saying, “I more or less understood the earlier parts, but there was no need to describe the late-night snack in such detail.”

“Why not? That was the most interesting part of last night, in my opinion.” Zheng Fan’s expression became earnest and solemn. “I have never enjoyed a meal that much myself.”

After all, he could not use his own body to make one, but other people’s bodies were another matter entirely. As for the excessively powerful Miss Red-Line Murderer, she certainly did not care.

Lin Yilin had seemed about to say something, but in the end, she merely sighed without making it obvious and turned listlessly toward the computer screen.

“Our commission may not be going very well. That Divine Arrival Agency seems pretty formidable. I saw someone there who can find a hallucination and directly possess himself with it, just like you,” Zheng Fan said from where he was leaning against the sofa.

“What are the characteristics of the hallucination?” Lin Yilin asked casually.

“A rugged unicorn, white skin, and a long white tail.”

“Hong Baixian. A partner of the Divine Arrival Agency. It is a hallucination created by the overlap of the Water World and the Black World, and one with relatively low aggression and hostility. Not long after coming into contact with the people from the Divine Arrival Agency, it grew to possess considerable intelligence. Its known violence rating is ‘gang.’”

“Just like me?” Zheng Fan glanced sideways at her.

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“Mr. Hallucination, your minimum rating is ‘gang,’ but even with fluctuations, Hong Baixian does not exceed that category. It is a very mature hallucination, but that is all. As long as someone joins the Divine Arrival Agency and achieves a little, they can obtain a Hong Baixian fantasy factor, establish a connection with it, and use part of its power.”

“That easily? No wonder a large agency has such excellent member benefits.” Zheng Fan was surprised. He had originally assumed that hallucination factors were extremely scarce. After all, apart from the Processing Bureau, he had never heard of any other organization that allowed people to use them so freely.

“Not every large agency can do that. The Divine Arrival Agency simply happens to have a particularly cooperative hallucination, and using it as a mascot has significantly improved their competitiveness.” Lin Yilin began tapping away at the keyboard, her tone flat and even.

Using a fantasy factor meant leaving a back door in one’s own body for the hallucination. Without some sort of guarantee, publicizing such a mascot would be useless. Who could tell whether one was truly cooperating with a hallucination or merely deceiving people into nourishing one?

“As for this commission, our interests do not conflict. As long as Lin De is still alive, we can still claim a share.”

The Divine Arrival Agency’s sudden intervention had indeed been somewhat unexpected.

But it also made perfect sense.

Even Lin Yilin alone had been able to make such rapid progress. Judging from the traces, that nameless casino had already been operating for some time. It was only natural that the clues it left behind had attracted the attention of the famous Divine Arrival Agency.

“It is a pity I did not get to see that hallucination directly last night,” Zheng Fan said.

He took a singularity into his hand and kneaded it between his fingers, apparently deep in thought.

“We need to synchronize our progress with the Divine Arrival Agency,” Lin Yilin said.

“So there are things happening on Xixi Keke Street that you do not know about after all.”

“I only know what is within my own intelligence network.”

“That is a good answer. Since your neighbors cannot help us, do we need to go and find the Divine Arrival Agency ourselves?” Zheng Fan asked eagerly, already preparing for a classic scene.

When a small agency went to seek cooperation with a large agency, there had to be a phase where they were looked down upon. Then Miss Lin Yilin would display her brilliance, while Zheng Fan would show off his strength and blind them with his dazzling performance!

“No need.”

“Huh?”

Lin Yilin took out her phone and found a number in her contacts. “I will just call and ask.”

“...”

Zheng Fan turned his head away.

Tsk. Miss Lin Yilin’s neighbors really were something else.

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