"The Dye Thief?" Tang Xin asked, confused.
"Just a joke. Maybe I just didn't rest well, don't overthink it," Xu Xiaoyou added.
Tang Xin looked at Xu Xiaoyou's blinking eyes, feeling like the other girl had done something to wrong her.
The memories and time from last night didn't seem to align perfectly. She had a doubt: why would Xu Xiaoyou go to a flower shop? If it was just to deceive the investigators' eyes, why did she end up at Ocean Blue Whale?
Logically, it didn't make sense. Given her personality, she wouldn't go to such a place unless there was an absolute reason.
The more Tang Xin thought about it, the more she sensed something was off. Xu Xiaoyou watched the girl's expression, large beads of sweat rolling down her forehead.
Just then, a notification pinged on Tang Xin's curtain.
[Evening Breeze and You has entered the stream.]
[Evening Breeze and You: Streamer, I'm late today!]
"What song would you like to hear today?"
Seeing the familiar ID enter the room, Tang Xin stopped thinking about yesterday. She picked up her instrument and sat before the curtain, interacting with the viewers.
Over the past few days, under Xu Xiaoyou's planning and account management, Tang Xin's follower count on BuBird had surpassed 1,500. Her latest video had thousands of likes and 80,000 views, with daily viewers stabilizing at two to three hundred.
While streaming, Tang Xin would use a few training cards. Consequently, her singing had become much more solid, and her other artistic abilities had improved. Most importantly, she finally unlocked the exclusive skills of the 【Starry Singer】.
Two single-target buffs and one group aura: 【Blue-Winged Voice】, 【Heroic Hymn】, and 【Stars Overlap】.
【Blue-Winged Voice: Bestows the 'Swift Wings' effect on a single target. Swift Wings: Increases agility to 1.2 and grants 0.2 mental resistance.】
【Heroic Hymn: Bestows the 'Fearless' effect on a single target. Fearless: Increases strength to 1.3, constitution to 1.3, and grants 0.1 physical damage immunity.】
【Stars Overlap: Bestows the 'Starry Movement' effect on all allies. Starry Movement: Grants priority for skill casting, increases all attributes to 1.1, and grants immunity to all control effects for the next 10s.】
Xu Xiaoyou nodded in satisfaction after reviewing Tang Xin's training report.
People of this world naturally didn't understand the specific functions of these skills; they could only make rough judgments based on the effects. They might not even know the concept of attributes. All professional traits had to be explored through growth, and some remained ignorant of their own nature until death.
Only she could see such detailed text descriptions. Who told her she was a noble otherworldly soul?
Looking at the skill descriptions, she had to admit that the Starry Singer was indeed an overpowered support class. To have such utility at grade 2—not even mentioning the attribute buffs and damage immunity—a ten-second group control immunity was enough to accomplish a lot.
As for the "priority for skill casting" effect, she didn't quite understand its meaning yet. She would have to test it in actual combat. Half a day passed in a flash.
"That's about it for today's stream," Tang Xin said.
: By the way, who is that girl behind Little Blue Bird? What's the relationship? Are you living together? I see her every time you stream.
: Yeah, yeah, +1 for curiosity.
Xu Xiaoyou stood behind Tang Xin, smiling and greeting the viewers.
Tang Xin looked back and gave a small smile. "We're good friends. We're both dirt poor, so we have to squeeze into this tiny room together."
After speaking, Tang Xin closed the stream and stretched. "Yuzu, what are we eating tonight?"
"If it's still egg fried rice, should I make it?"
At that moment, Xu Xiaoyou noticed a new email in her curtain inbox.
[S-rank employee Xu Xiaoyou, Code 3604. We are officially issuing a commission to you: Capture the defecting company executive, Yorick.]
Xu Xiaoyou ignored it. She had clearly blacklisted Universal Heavy Industries. How did this email get through?
Just as she was about to delete it to avoid the headache, her eyes caught the last line of text, and her body froze.
[Commission Reward: 10,000 inspiration and cancellation of all previous debts.]
[—Universal Heavy Industries Strategic Human Resources Department.]
10,000 inspiration!
That was roughly equivalent to over a million credit points—an astronomical figure she wouldn't have dared to imagine before.
It was extremely important to her now. These days, she had been worrying about the registration and maintenance funds for the shell company, Dream-Chaser Media. If she didn't pay on time every month, the expensive registered company would be revoked.
Completing a company commission could also wipe her slate clean? Was there really such a good deal in this world?
Xu Xiaoyou didn't let the tempting reward cloud her judgment.
High returns usually came with high risks, whether at a gambling table or elsewhere.
For such a high reward, this company commission was bound to be troublesome. That defecting executive's identity was certainly not simple.
After some thought, she finally decided to accept. When one is under another's roof, one must bow their head.
She clicked to confirm the commission on the curtain. Before long, a call came in.
She answered, and the image on the curtain changed. A dark-haired young man appeared. Xu Xiaoyou immediately noticed his heavy dark circles; he looked quite drained.
"Hello, Miss Xu. I am the intermediary for this operation. You can call me Jian Liu."
Jian Liu smiled, his tone polite and calm.
Xu Xiaoyou felt like she had seen him somewhere before. She remembered now—when she had almost lost control because of Anya, he had been inside the Dream of the Black Swan apartment. There seemed to be a boy with him at the time.
"What does the company have to say?"
"Some things aren't clear over the curtain. If you have time, Miss Xu, please come to the address I sent."
"What can't be explained? If you keep being cryptic, I'll hang up right now," Xu Xiaoyou said coldly.
Jian Liu froze, then said, "Actually, I am the head of the Dawn Agency. The higher-ups at Universal Heavy Industries directly commissioned me to find you. This capture operation will be carried out by my subordinates, two of the company's shadows, and yourself."
"Couldn't you have just said that in one go?" Xu Xiaoyou's expression remained unchanged, but her heart was racing.
He was the head of the Dawn Agency?
She hadn't expected such a figure to seek her out. Fixer agencies were naturally ranked into different tiers, and the Dawn Agency was at the very top. It was a grade 5 agency assigned the "Dawn" code name by the association. It boasted three top-tier prism grade fixers and tens of thousands of registered members. Its scale was so large that it had branches in most hive cities, its roots spreading across the world.
The Dawn Agency was a behemoth among global powers. Its headquarters, Daybreak City—that mysterious and ancient hive city—was something Xu Xiaoyou had heard of. It was a heavyweight entity that had existed even before the New Era.
It drifted through the rifts of time and space like a ghost.
Rumor had it that whenever it appeared in the world, the heavens would flash with lightning and roar with thunder.
Why would the master behind such an existence appear at the Star of Art?
Rate on N.U.
