Chapter 891: Old Gunner Bohemia
Bohemia set off just as the eastern sun began to peek over the horizon. After eating a meal of unknown origin during the night, she was sent to bed by Lin Sanjiu, who was afraid that she would be "mentally unfit to handle things"—as if she was being underestimated.
Moreover, Lin Sanjiu herself remained in the restaurant, talking to Silvan until dawn. Wasn"t she worried about being "mentally unfit to handle things" herself? And did they discuss the idea of going to the Astral Plane to obtain Growth Potential Value?
After only two hours of sleep, Silas did everything he could to wake Bohemia up. The sky outside Exodus was still a gloomy ink-blue, with dense forests of dark green shrouded in swirling mist. Only a faint silhouette could be seen, as if it were an endless abyss.
Bohemia looked down at the forest below, and the chilly morning breeze made her shudder. Even though she had been able to weather many storms alone in the past, after just a few days in Exodus, she had become comfortable and soft. What"s worse, after spending time with others, she found herself somewhat resistant to her previous solitary state...
This couldn"t go on.
"I"d rather not sleep at all. I"m so tired." She complained with a drooping face to Lin Sanjiu, who was seeing her off. Fortunately, Silvan wasn"t around, and she didn"t know where that man had gone.
"It"ll get better soon. Take this," Lin Sanjiu ignored her complaints and pulled out a handful of origami cranes from somewhere. "I brought plenty so that we can stay in touch... Do you know how to use them?"
If she didn"t even know how to use this basic communication tool, then she must have had a miserable time in the past.
If it weren"t for the fatigue still weighing her down, Bohemia would have started arguing on the spot. She grabbed the origami cranes and stuffed them into the ta.s.seled waist bag, then turned and walked down the mountain.
"Remember what I told you!" Lin Sanjiu shouted after her, sounding quite worried. "Don"t wander around on the way, and come back as soon as possible!"
"I know, I know! Are you annoying or what?"
Bohemia was in a bad mood, but it improved slightly by the time she arrived at Black Market. She still had some red crystals in her pocket that Lin Sanjiu had given her, enough to indulge herself once and buy some small things she used to be reluctant to buy. There was a nail polish from the previous world that had been reprocessed by posthumans. It not only allowed her to change the color at will but also created different "illusions" on her nails based on the color. Nail polish wasn"t exactly expensive, but it was the first time she was willing to spend money on something so useless.
She extended her fingers into the sunlight, feeling a distant, moist breeze coming from the blue sea, and the shadows of palm trees reflecting in her eyes along with the sunlight. The waves broke into white froths on the beach, and somewhere in the distance, seagulls let out long calls.
After experiencing the sea breeze for a while, Bohemia lowered her eyes and withdrew her hand.
Her familiar world rarely revealed such calm and benevolent goodwill as the nail polish illusions, old travelogues, or recorded movies left by human society.
...Those foolish and naive alliance partners of hers.
Walking among the crowd, surrounded by busy posthumans, Bohemia couldn"t help but frown. They were all rus.h.i.+ng around for their own survival, seemingly unaware or unaffected by what was happening just a few miles away, where the medical stations were being invaded by pocket dimensions. The Black Market, on the other hand, continued to operate as if nothing was happening, following its routine every day.
Didn"t they know what was going on?
Bohemia frowned, hesitating whether she should find someone she knew to inquire about the situation.
"That Yu Yuan wasn"t in danger yesterday," she muttered to herself. "If he was meant to die, he would have died a long time ago. And if he was meant to live, he would have lived."
So, if she arrives half an hour early or late, it"s not a big deal, right?
Moreover, they need more information now. Even if Lin Sanjiu finds out, it shouldn"t be a problem...
When Bohemia thought of this, she suddenly felt a bit unwilling and clenched her lips. She had always been impulsive, doing whatever she wanted without considering others. As for the consequences, she would deal with them when they appeared, or run away if she couldn"t handle them.
What was happening to her now? Why did she have to consider whether Lin Sanjiu would be worried just to inquire about some information?
As if to prove that she was still herself, Bohemia glanced around and, seeing that no one was paying attention to her, turned and entered a narrow alley nearby.
The narrow alley was dark and dirty, with several giant green trash bins occupying half of the s.p.a.ce. The garbage and filth from several nearby areas were concentrated here and collected by fallen posthumans who cleaned the streets. It emitted a strong, pungent odor as if it were alive, so posthumans rarely ventured into this area.
Before stepping into the sewage pit on the alley road, Bohemia rolled up her wide sleeves and skirt. She twisted her long hair into a bundle and held it in her mouth, while her hands firmly grasped her loose-fitting gypsy-like clothes. Carefully, she made her way towards the deepest part where a trash bin was located.
The trash bin wasn"t completely against the brick wall; there was a dark gap between them. With a glance inside, she could see the faint reflection of sewage on the gap"s floor. Everything looked sticky, rotten, and smelly. Bohemia wrapped her hand in her clothes, placed it behind the trash bin, and pulled it outward with force, revealing enough s.p.a.ce for one person to stand.
From the crack in the wall with a dead rat"s tail stuck to it, count four bricks downward, then two bricks to the left, and give it a strong knock... Bohemia released her clothes and waited quietly for a few seconds, then the brick moved with a clatter, pulled open by someone from inside.
"This is our rat farm, don"t disturb us!"
"I"m just here to see how fat the rats have gotten." Bohemia bent down, opened her mouth, and her hair fell down.
The dark hole in the wall fell silent, then the voice asked again, "Do you want to buy rat meat?"
"Yes."
"What do you need it for?"
"To sell as barbecue."
A voice from the hole chuckled like a snort. "If you can come in, then come on in."
The next part was going to be tough.
Bohemia hated this part the most, even more than when she had to pay. She had to gather all the chains of her bracelets, hunch her shoulders, and compress herself into a small, tight figure to squeeze through the narrow and dirty hole with difficulty. Every time, she would put on an old coat, but this time, her skirt got torn by the dark and dirty pa.s.sage.
The width of the hole was just enough for a person of normal build to squeeze through, but it sc.r.a.ped and made people extremely uncomfortable. It was as if the people here didn"t welcome any customers at all.
"Not much money."
As soon as her feet touched the ground, before her eyes could adjust to the darkness, Bohemia heard a voice not far ahead, sounding like a broken wind box, uttering these three words.
"An old customer," another voice, almost indistinguishable from the previous one, replied.
"A customer with low value."
"But at least they"re safe."
Every time Bohemia enters, they always realize that she doesn"t have much money.
She could never figure out how the Chicky brothers in the darkness managed to do it—just like she couldn"t understand how they controlled and a.n.a.lyzed the majority of information in the Twelve Realms. She sneered and counterattacked without showing any weakness: "As long as I can make the payment, why do you care if I have money or not? You live in the sewer every day, what good is money to you?"
"Oh, it"s Bohemia." — Even though the mask changed Bohemia"s appearance and voice, her temper couldn"t be concealed.
Humming, Bohemia"s eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness.
Red and blue dots of light sporadically scattered in the dark room, flickering from time to time. Numerous square shadows piled together, making it look like a warehouse filled with many boxes. On the left and right, two similar-sized figures, even in the absence of light, one could tell they hadn"t cut their hair for a long time, sat in their worn-out chairs, spinning around in circles.
Although the outside was dirty and smelly, the smell in the room was bearable—just a mixture of the two men"s body odor, breath, smoke, dust, leftover food, and rat droppings from being trapped in the narrow room all day.
"Do you really need to turn off the lights every time I come in?" Bohemia complained. "At least I"m a customer."
"Trade secret," said the shadow on the left.
Such a lame security measure. If they had someone wearing night vision goggles, wouldn"t all their trade secrets be exposed... Bohemia thought so, but she managed to keep it from slipping out.
"Speak up," the shadow on the right pushed the edge of the table, and both the chair and the person creaked as they turned in a circle. "What do you want to inquire about?"
Bohemia contemplated for a moment.
"The internal affairs of the Twelve Organizations, can you get any information on that? The kind of information that might be relatively secretive even to internal members."
"Don"t look down on us!" The shadow on the left abruptly turned around.
"You should be asking us what information we can"t get."
"No, it"s better not to ask that question, bad for business."
Before they could interrupt, Bohemia quickly interjected, "Let me speak first! I want to know what the high-ranking members of the Twelve Organizations know about the Great Deluge... and what their plans are."
Both chairs stopped simultaneously, and the creaking sound of old metal gradually faded in the dark room.
"The Great Deluge...?" The shadow on the left seemed a bit puzzled.
Could it be that these Chicky brothers still don"t know about the Great Deluge?
"Wait," the shadow on the right seemed to sense that Bohemia was about to speak, "don"t say anything. Let us a.n.a.lyze the information you just revealed in your statement!"
These two people... are really abnormal.
Bohemia closed her mouth and waited dumbly for a while until the voices of the two men sounded simultaneously in the darkness: "Are you referring to the imminent collapse of the Doomsday World System?"