Chapter 664: Huh?

A gentle breeze passed through the valley, carrying the scent of soil and green grass. The sky was clear, and a faint smell of grilled mushrooms still lingered in the grass nests by the riverbank. The little fish that had been thrown into the river long ago had now grown considerably, and occasionally schools of fish could be seen gathered near the stone hollows by the shore. When shadows shifted nearby, the startled fish would splash water with a loud roar.

Yu Sheng pushed open the door and came out from the Special Operations Bureau cafeteria's back kitchen, having scrounged some meat skewers, fruit, and a few sweet potatoes. He then dug open the pile of coals left by Rapunzel, wrapped the sweet potatoes in tin foil, and buried them in the hot ash. Next, he piled up the remaining branches nearby, built a small fire next to the hot ash, and slowly grilled the meat skewers over it.

He handed a grilled chicken skewer to the blonde elf beside him.

Luo took it, thanked him, blew on it vigorously, and took a bite. Her eyes widened in surprise: "Boss, you've got skills!"

"Do you know how much trouble I went through to feed Hu Li before we signed the strategic cooperation agreement with the Special Operations Bureau cafeteria?" Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow. "This is nothing."

Ai Lin crouched near the fire, poking a few acorns she'd just tossed into the flames with a long stick. Suddenly she looked up at Luo: "Aren't you an elf? Do elves eat meat?"

"There are many kinds of elves—we Algrad elves aren't that particular," Luo glanced at the little puppet. "What we eat is actually pretty normal. You should see the dietary customs of the Tela elves sometime—even Hu Li might not be able to handle that stuff."

Ai Lin blinked: "Hey, now that you mention it, I forgot about that..."

Yu Sheng looked from Ai Lin to Luo, not understanding what they were talking about, and couldn't help asking curiously: "What's up with the Tela elves? What's so special about their diet?"

Before he could finish, Luo said leisurely: "Boss, have you ever heard of large intestine sashimi?"

Yu Sheng was utterly stunned.

But Luo had more to say: "After eating giblet sauce pancakes, they use large intestine sashimi to cleanse the palate."

Yu Sheng: "...How about we talk about something more worldly?"

Luo laughed, holding the chicken skewer. Somewhere along the way, she had gradually adapted to the relaxed, cheerful, and slightly absurd atmosphere of the Traveler crew. She was no longer as cautious and tense around Yu Sheng as she had been at first—though Ai Lin popping out of nowhere still startled her occasionally.

"The plan to use Old Joe as a 'company traitor' to smuggle fake Angel Catalyst into the Hermits' nest has two major risks," Luo said leisurely. "Either the 'Old Joe' cover gets blown, and the Hermits realize the real Old Joe is dead; or the Angel Catalyst gets exposed, and the Hermits have a special way to tell if it's fake."

She casually tossed the leftover skewer into the fire, watching the bamboo stick slowly burn and curl, speaking thoughtfully.

"For the Angel Catalyst, we can only rely on the Special Operations Bureau's 'processing techniques' and the 'extra ingredients' you added, Boss. If those two are reliable, there's a high chance the fake Catalyst will fool the Hermits—after all, from the available data, they haven't fully mastered the power of the Angel Catalyst either. Plus, the Twilight Angels are all different, so they probably can't completely identify a Catalyst either; they rely on various 'characteristics' to judge authenticity indirectly.

"The most likely point of failure is still the 'Old Joe' link... Making a fake person isn't hard—we've got plenty of Old Joe's metal shells, and Mo Mo and I are familiar with his mannerisms. With a bit of improvisation, as long as we don't need to maintain long communications, we can bluff the Hermits' contact person—after all, their relationship probably isn't that close.

"The real difficulty is that we don't know if Old Joe had any other 'passcodes' or 'identification methods' when contacting the Hermits. I recovered some communication keys from the Deeprock Fortress system, but that only ensures we can reach the Hermits. If there were other agreements in their communications—even just a keyword, a specific noise...

"If we mess that up, our plan is exposed."

Listening to Luo's analysis, Yu Sheng frowned slightly. He casually picked up Ai Lin, who was getting too close to the fire, and set her farther away, speaking slowly: "That kind of thing wouldn't be recorded in system logs, but given Old Joe's cautious nature, he definitely had some agreement with his contact."

Luo nodded: "After all, he was sneaking company secrets to outsiders and leaking key data from the Pioneer Lab. Old Joe knew how much risk that carried if exposed."

Ai Lin crept back to the fire, poking around with a stick, getting closer and closer—because the stick in her hand was burning shorter.

Yu Sheng casually picked up the little puppet again and handed her a longer stick from nearby.

"Could any of the 'lab assistants' we rescued know about this? Mo Mo said she didn't, but maybe someone else..."

"Impossible," Luo shook her head. "Old Joe was a madman balanced between insanity and rationality. He might vent some trivial matters to the lab slaves to relieve stress, but when it came to his core security, he wouldn't leak a single word."

Yu Sheng frowned deeply, sucking on his teeth: "Either way, we have to do this soon. If we wait too long, Old Joe's death will spread on its own before we can execute the plan. And who knows if the Hermits and Old Joe had some sort of 'regular contact' arrangement? If they suddenly call and no one answers at Deeprock Fortress, that's a big problem..."

"...Maybe I should have interrogated him longer," Luo's expression turned sour. "But, but I really..."

"How long do you think you would need to interrogate a guy like Old Joe to get the truth out of him?" Yu Sheng raised his eyelids. "With someone like him, confessing at the point of death is more suspicious than not confessing. If there was any oversight, the only one was that I should have used Speak with Dead to interrogate his soul... though I seriously doubt he had a soul left to interrogate."

Luo was taken aback, staring at Yu Sheng's face as if trying to read something, but in the end she just sighed and muttered softly: "...Thank you."

Yu Sheng waved his hand: "I'm not comforting you."

Just then, Ai Lin finally managed to dig the hot acorns out of the fire. Happily, she tossed aside the burnt stick and raised her hand, beckoning into the air. With a sharp whoosh, the Doom Comet flew over from the direction of the teleportation hub.

Then the little puppet, while using the Doom Comet to crack the burnt acorns without looking up, blurted out: "Why do we have to follow the rules and contact the Hermits properly? If you don't know the passcode, then don't use one..."

Yu Sheng instinctively said: "Then we'd expose Old Joe's situation as soon as we connect..."

Ai Lin looked up, her eyes bright and unhesitating: "Then let Old Joe, while being in trouble, call them anyway."

Yu Sheng was taken aback, then suddenly seemed to understand something. He turned to look at the blonde elf beside him.

Luo turned her head at almost the same time.

The two looked at each other, both apparently thinking in the same direction. Luo spoke first: "Right... the initiative is actually in our hands. As long as the Angel Catalyst bait is convincing..."

"Exactly. As long as the Angel Catalyst bait is real enough," Yu Sheng followed up, "then we can just make up 'Old Joe's' situation however we want, right?"

Ai Lin, holding the Doom Comet in the cracking position, blinked at them: "...Huh?"

"We can come up with a 'script,'" Luo's mind was racing. "Make Old Joe's urgent contact reasonable—urgent enough that he can't afford secure communication, urgent enough that he's completely panicked..."

Yu Sheng: "Isn't the Angel Catalyst itself a reason? That thing could go out of control any moment... If that's not enough, add some involvement from the Special Operations Bureau!"

Ai Lin: "Huh?"

"Ai Lin, you're amazing!" Yu Sheng's eyes lit up. He spun around and picked up the little puppet, holding her in the air. "I thought you were just messing around with the fire, but you've been helping us think of ideas the whole time! I have to say, your six clusters of parallel processors really do come in handy!"

Ai Lin: "Huh, huh?"

Yu Sheng ruffled the little puppet's head vigorously, set her down on the ground happily, then stood up from the bonfire, brushing grass and dirt off himself as he said to Luo: "Alright then. You handle the technical stuff—set up the communication channel and the disguise needed for the fake transaction in the next couple of days. Besides the fake 'Old Joe,' we'll also need a shuttle for the deal with the Hermits, and that shuttle needs to be properly camouflaged. As for me, I'll go back and work on the script. That's my specialty."

As he spoke, he dug open the pile of hot ash, scooped out the baked sweet potatoes into a bowl (also borrowed from the Special Operations Bureau cafeteria), neatly packed the grilled meat skewers and fruit, and turned to leave.

Luo was taken aback: "Hey? Weren't those grilled for me?"

"They're for Hu Li. She loves baked sweet potatoes," Yu Sheng said matter-of-factly. "The skewer I gave you earlier was just for you to taste—besides, you already ate a bunch of grilled mushrooms. You've only got your original organs left in your stomach; take care of yourself."

"Hey—"

Luo instinctively stood up, but before she could say another word, a handful of meat skewers was shoved into her hands.

"Just kidding. These are for you."

Then, before she knew it, Yu Sheng had pushed open the door and left.

Now it was just her, Luna who had been standing in a daze not far away, and Ai Lin, still looking bewildered.

Luna was about to tend to the vegetable patch, so she didn't follow. Ai Lin was using a mass-produced body, so she didn't leave either.

Luo stood blankly for a few seconds, then sat back down in the grass nest with a handful of skewers, looking up at the sky.

She'd rest for another ten minutes. The sky was still so blue.

She smiled, slowly nibbling on the skewer, then glanced at Ai Lin, who still seemed to be spacing out.

"Seriously, I never expected you to have such a sharp insight," Luo said sincerely. "I admit I've underestimated you."

Ai Lin thought for a moment, then puffed out her chest happily: "That's right! I'm amazing!"

Then, as she shoved the charred acorns into Luo's hands, she asked curiously: "By the way, what exactly did you mean by 'passcode' earlier? What's it for?"

Luo: "...Huh?"

(End of chapter)