Chapter 68: Chapter 38. General Red Bean

Inside the Lungmen Guard Department interrogation room.

Hoshiguma's tall figure leaned against the edge of the table, her sharp eyes fixed on a gang member sitting across from her.

"Do you have anything else to say?"

"Nothing left, Officer Hoshisir. Would we ever dare disobey your words? We really just went to the Financial Building for a tour, it has nothing to do with anyone else. I even went to look for the person in charge of the fire protection facilities. Not only did he reject my request, but he also threw away the gift I brought, so we had no choice but to find the ventilation ducts and crawl in."

Hoshiguma stared intently at his bruised and battered face, raised her hand, and snapped her fingers. The interrogation room fell into complete silence.

About ten seconds later, Hoshiguma let out a sigh of relief: "Ah Fa, doing this was too risky. You can't expose your identity, understand? It took a great deal of effort to rescue you from Reunion back then, and saving you again would be extremely difficult."

The bruised and swollen Ah Fa spoke with a lisp through his missing teeth, chuckling, "Sister Ghost is too polite. This little brother has never had any complaints running errands for the Big Sister. This life belongs to you, Big Sister."

"Alright, in a moment you'll have to take another hit. Someone will come to bail you out after dawn. Go back, tend to your wounds properly, and stop meddling in these Lungmen affairs. Next time, you might just lose your life. If you want to pull out now, it's still easy—"

Ah Fa grimaced and said, "I know. Sister Ghost, your meaning is for me to help Old Man Dong manage his business. Anyway, with Boss Lin around, as long as I don't stir up trouble in the Outskirts, no one will come looking for revenge."

He paused to catch his breath: "Ever since the day I entered the gang, I never thought I could wash my hands and quit, especially after Senior Brother Li personally shattered the title of 'Number One in Lungmen'. I knew then that there really was no turning back. Sister Ghost, you're on official duty, so it's best you don't ask about matters concerning the sect."

Seeing that persuasion was useless, Hoshiguma stopped forcing the issue and asked instead, "Has the Outskirts been peaceful during this period?"

Ah Fa pondered for a moment, hesitating: "Nothing major has happened, but industrial accidents are frequent. The boilers blew up twice in three days, killing quite a few workers. Fortunately, the compensation was sufficient, so things didn't blow up this time. Besides, this year's weather is colder than previous years, freezing quite a few vagrants to death. There are many who can't survive, and corpses can be fished out of the docks every day."

"The number of times the sect collected protection fees has also dropped significantly this year. Perhaps everyone is having a hard time."

Hoshiguma was momentarily at a loss and muttered, "The Guard Department is also investigating the weather issue. We'll be setting sail in a few days, and it's indeed too cold to endure."

She walked briskly over to Ah Fa, raised her chin, and said, "Just once, I'm very fast."

...

Beep, beep, beep.

The delivery rider's electric scooter stopped by the roadside, a pair of suspicious eyes hidden beneath his helmet. He had never heard of anyone living in this old downtown residence. In typical urban legends, abandoned old houses, buildings where people had died, and sudden taps on the shoulder in the middle of the night constantly gnawed at his heart.

Just then, a tall man walked out of the old residence, standing by the roadside and looking around as if waiting for something.

Could he be the customer?

The delivery guy honked his horn a few times, and the man turned around and walked quickly toward him.

Quite handsome, but there were no ears or tail visible, making it impossible to recognize his race.

"My delivery? The name is Azusa." The man's attitude was mild, rubbing his hands in the cold wind, clearly freezing.

There was a heavy smell of alcohol on him.

The delivery guy lowered his head to check the receipt. The name the customer used... what a strange name. Would such a handsome man use such a bizarre name?

"Thank you."

Taking the delivery, a cold gust of wind blew, making Zhou Jinru shudder all over. Lungmen's winter was colder than he had imagined. He looked at the label stuck on the takeout bag and couldn't help whether to laugh or cry, finally understanding why the delivery rider had that hesitation-to-speak look.

General Azusa.

Turns out you're this childish, Azusa?

The red-haired little demon holds her fork high in the air and shouts: General Azusa is a high-attack, high-critical-hit, low-cost skill-recovery Vanguard Operator!

"Forget it, doing that would probably get me stabbed."

Zhou Jinru imagined Azusa's arrogant demeanor and instantly dismissed the thought of mocking her.

Jogging back into the old residence, Ansuo, who had previously fled in tears, had already returned. Her eye rims were red, obviously having just cried, and she was sitting between Azusa and Cuora. Bison, who had been missing, was also back, intently reading what Zhou Jinru had written down.

"Ah-Guang, you're back?"

槐琥 (Huai Hu) came out of the room feeling listless, her once glossy fur having lost its luster. Having heard Bison describe the stunning sword strike that simultaneously took down over a dozen Ursus people, Huai Hu truly lived up to being a 5-star Specialist Operator.

Zhou Jinru even wondered if the divine might of that sword strike she displayed was already overpowered. Perhaps every operator had their own secrets, and hiding their true strength wasn't out of the question.

"Go wash your hands. You're only allowed to eat after washing your hands."

Spreading out the takeout: a family bucket, spicy chicken nuggets, chicken wings, drumsticks, hamburgers, and cola. Aside from the giblets inside the chicken's belly, practically every body part of the bird was on the table.

Azusa turned her head, her gaze landing on the delivery receipt. Under Zhou Jinru's gaze, her little face turned crimson red, and she quickly stood up and sprinted into the bathroom as if fleeing.

"Ansuo..."

Before he could finish, Ansuo lifted her chin, turned around, and walked away.

Bison, who had been engrossed in reading, looked up and suddenly realized that only he and Zhou Jinru were left in the room. He scratched his head and asked, "Mr. Ah-Guang, it turns out you also have such deep attainments in literary creation?"

"What do you think?" Zhou Jinru asked with keen interest.

The Ark world had not given birth to internet literature in the true sense. Zhou Jinru had investigated this when he arrived in Lungmen. The reason was actually very simple: due to the frequent natural disasters driving mobile cities to run everywhere, the internet could only connect a single region, which could only be called a local area network. This resulted in people from one mobile city finding it difficult to communicate with another, depriving internet-born phenomena of a survival environment.

Perhaps someone had made similar efforts in the past, but they had all ultimately failed. Now Zhou Jinru wanted to pick it up and try again. He wasn't fighting alone; while writing these things, he had been waiting for Bison. If this young master of Rhodes Island's partner—Penguin Logistics—was interested, then this seed could successfully take root and sprout in Lungmen. As for how far it could grow, it wasn't up to him to decide.

"In my hometown, these are a form of spiritual food. Go wash your hands first, and we'll eat and chat at the same time."

Zhou Jinru nodded. Bison was truly his lucky star; this was a good start. As long as he could win Bison's support, Lungmen had no reason to reject a pool that could acquire a large number of high-quality scripts.