Wang Xu didn't even react for a moment as the voice on the other end of the line suddenly turned hostile and began cursing at him.
Bai Feifei's previous tone had been relatively soft, making him so accustomed to it that he was about to start lecturing her again.
But now that Xu Mo had taken over and started cursing, Wang Xu’s eyes practically cleared from the shock. Only then did he remember that the person he was talking to seemed to be a very difficult psychopath.
Did this guy’s temperament always shift so unpredictably?
“You...”
“‘You’ what? Skip the boring dialogue,” Xu Mo said impatiently.
“It’s such a small matter, yet you act like the sky is falling. What a fuss over nothing.”
“I’m not coming back. I’m heading into the mountains to start the slaughter now.”
“All you know how to do is pass the buck. I think you’ve gotten too comfortable slacking off. Just remember to come and clean up my mess tomorrow.”
After saying that, Xu Mo hung up immediately without waiting for Wang Xu’s reply.
Why waste words with them? Back when he played the game, Xu Mo never paid attention to these useless plotlines.
It was only because Bai Feifei took the call today that he listened for a bit, and it had already annoyed him.
These people made a few trivial matters in this tiny place sound like the end of the world.
Beep— Beep—
Hearing the dial tone, Wang Xu looked down at the phone in his hand, feeling somewhat dazed.
“How did it go? What did she say?”
Liu Wenfeng was standing nearby. Seeing Wang Xu’s expression, he sensed things were going south, but he still asked tentatively.
“I seriously suspect she has a split personality,” Wang Xu said in a trance. “What kind of person did the higher-ups send us...”
Liu Wenfeng was confused.
“What happened?”
“By the way, the higher-ups just sent word back. They said they’re sending someone to the coal mine tomorrow to take a look.”
“It’s very unusual. This time, they didn’t even ask for specifics; they just said they were coming over.”
Hearing this, Wang Xu ran straight to a faucet, turned on the cold water, and doused his head.
He had a premonition that the trouble this time was truly massive—perhaps even beyond his imagination.
“We have to set out too! Tomorrow morning, before the people from above arrive!”
...
After Xu Mo finished cursing at Wang Xu, he handed the body back to Bai Feifei.
He’d leave the trivial matters like saying goodbye to the miners to her; he had never been good at that sort of thing.
Furthermore, for tonight’s hunt, he intended to let Bai Feifei do it herself without his assistance.
This was Bai Feifei’s own wish. After experiencing that mysterious “Slaughter God Mode” earlier, she had accumulated some subconscious knowledge of how to fight.
Xu Mo was happy to oblige. Simply grinding small mobs was already quite tedious for an Old-Timer like him, so leaving it to Bai Feifei was for the best.
It could be considered a way to make up for the fact that this game lacked an auto-battle feature.
By now, the sun had set and the sky was growing dark. Bai Feifei’s slender figure stood on a small hill within the mining area.
This mining area was simply too vast. Bai Feifei had been walking for a while holding the Copper-grade Cognition Filter when a crack suddenly appeared on the bronze mirror.
“It’s nearby.” Bai Feifei looked down, sensing the direction where the Cognition Filter was vibrating most violently.
“Don’t be nervous. At your current level, grinding some small mobs isn’t a big deal,” Xu Mo teased. “Weren’t you killing them quite well just now?”
Bai Feifei nodded and took a deep breath.
In a battle that would inevitably involve bloodshed, psychological pressure was more significant than strength alone.
Some aberrations might have been human just a moment ago. The pressure of such pity could cause her Sanity to drop even faster.
However...
During the time she hesitated, someone might be dying in a dark corner of this mountain, or someone might be waiting in despair for rescue.
There was no time to waste!
Drawing the long sword from her storage ring, Bai Feifei charged into the night without looking back!
A dark and windy night—the perfect night for grinding experience!
...
As the moon drifted west and the sky just began to brighten, a convoy of old-fashioned pickup trucks roared from the distance toward the Black Smoke Coal Mine.
Screech—
The brakes kicked up a cloud of dust. A team of people wearing Scavenger uniforms and carrying weapons jumped cautiously out of the vehicles.
Liu Yishou stepped out of the central vehicle, followed by a man and a woman.
“Something’s not right...” The man, who was the deputy of the Second Outpost, sniffed the air. “Should it be this quiet here?”
They had received the fluctuations from the anomaly detector yesterday evening, and quite some time had passed since then.
According to normal logic, the aberrations in this entire mining area should have spread by now. There should be the roars of aberrations and the screams of miners everywhere.
But now,
“I can’t even hear the voices of the miners... and I have no idea what’s going on with the aberrations.”
“Why care so much?” The woman next to Liu Yishou, named Zhao Jiao, spoke with disdain. “What does it matter if they live or die?”
“It would be for the best if they all died along with every aberration here.”
“Don’t forget why we’re here. Once we figure out the cause of these anomalous fluctuations, the important thing is to find a scapegoat!”
Liu Yishou looked at the dust-filled environment with some disgust and spoke:
“Regardless, since something has happened, we must find the cause and the person responsible for this.”
He placed special emphasis on the words “person responsible.”
“There’s no movement here right now. Wu Xin, use your ability.”
The deputy beside him nodded upon hearing this, closed his eyes, and spoke slowly:
【Winds and thunders of the world, enter my ears!】
He was using a Word Soul to activate his innate ability. Its effect was to detect the vitality and physical presence within a hundred-mile radius to locate enemies.
He was like a walking detector, which was why he had been brought along this time.
Wu Xin kept his eyes tightly shut. The world around him felt as if invisible waves were constantly surging into his brow.
Soon, his brow furrowed once more.
“Strange, truly too strange...”
“There is indeed the scent of blood, but there are no living creatures, no sense of strong physical presence. Could it be that the aberrations are all dead?”
“The life signals I can sense are all very weak; they should be the miners scattered around.”
“Those stinky bastards are still alive? They sure are lucky,” Zhao Jiao said dismissively from the side.
“Could it be that all the aberrations killed each other off? If they’re all dead, that’s perfect; we can finish up and head home.”
Her voice was full of the joy of being able to clock out early, but Liu Yishou’s expression turned even more grim.
He didn't care why such a strange situation had occurred; he only knew that this would make it very difficult for him to give an account to his superiors.
The Black Smoke Coal Mine had backing from above, but the higher-ups were never a monolithic block. The things behind this coal mine couldn't be spoken of openly.
If word reached certain people—like the newly appointed general head of the East District, Wan Qianhong—there might be real trouble!
“Eh?” Wu Xin suddenly let out a confused exclamation.
“To the east of the mountain, there seems to be someone with a clearly superior vitality and physical presence.”
“The aura is very unstable, as if they are injured, but in terms of physical presence, they’re nearly at the level of a Rank 3 Scavenger.”
Rate on N.U.
