Bai Chen shook her head:

"Staying here, the boss doesn't ask anything, and neither do we."

Jiang Baimian tilted her head and glanced at the door:

"When Shang Jianyao and I came back, we found no one at the front desk..."

She recounted the entire experience of hearing the "beast" roaring in the boss's room, emphasizing at the end:

"According to my senses, there is only one electrical signal inside that can be considered a large creature."

"Only one human consciousness," Shang Jianyao added.

"Wailing, roaring, pale, sweating..." Bai Chen chewed on these words, speculating, "Does he have some kind of illness? Or some kind of subhuman?"

Without waiting for Jiang Baimian and the others to respond, she made another guess:

"Maybe he believes in some strange religion?

"In Initial City, there are quite a few religions, large and small."

Jiang Baimian recalled for a while and said:

"Forget it, let's not discuss the boss's problems, it has nothing to do with us anyway."

Saying that, she lightly clapped her hands:

"Let's rest for a while, we have to meet the company's informant tonight."

...

At 7:40 p.m., it was already dark.

Red Wolf District, Bliss Street, Silver Candle Cafe.

After Bai Chen, Long Yuehong, and Genava each entered their surveillance positions, Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao pushed open the glass-embedded, slightly heavy door and walked in.

The tables here were a bit greasy, obviously doubling as a restaurant.

Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian each ordered a coffee, found the window-side, corner seat, and sat down.

Before long, two cups of coffee that locals called "Busha" were brought over.

Jiang Baimian took a light sniff, picked up the cup, and took a sip.

"Not too fragrant, the taste is also very ordinary, quite bland..." she said in a low voice, commenting.

The coffee she drank at Genava's house was better.

Moreover, milk and sugar are relatively expensive here, and you have to pay extra to add them, and sometimes they may not even be available.

Shang Jianyao followed suit, picked up the cup, and took two big gulps.

"It's quite thirst-quenching," he also said his feelings.

Jiang Baimian "hmm"ed:

"This place is probably prepared for lower and middle-class citizens.

"Throughout the Ashlands, the places that can grow grain are definitely planted with grain, how many good coffee beans can there be, how much instant coffee can be made?"

The two were drinking and talking like normal customers, when a person walked over from the table behind them and sat down with their back to them.

The position was walled off from the street and could not be seen by passers-by.

After about a minute, the person whose chair was adjacent to Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao suddenly lowered his voice and said softly:

"I am 'Garibaldi'."

He spoke in Ashlands language.

Jiang Baimian was stunned for a moment, turned her head, and looked at Shang Jianyao:

"Ah, what did you say? My ears are bad."

While speaking, she raised her hand and touched her metal cochlea.

The person calling himself "Garibaldi" was immediately dumbfounded in his seat.

He didn't expect that the secret meeting he had carefully prepared would encounter almost insurmountable difficulties from the beginning.

A back-to-back conversation pretending not to know each other had at least one prerequisite:

The other person must be able to hear clearly what you are saying.

Fortunately, Shang Jianyao controlled his voice and imitated his performance:

"I am 'Garibaldi'."

Jiang Baimian nodded when she heard this and slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Garibaldi" was the codename of the company's informant.

"I am the leader of the company's 'Old Task Force'. Has the information related to the target been collected?" With bad ears, Jiang Baimian could only desperately suppress her voice, lest she be overheard by the customers at other tables.

She also used Ashlands language.

This time, it was "Garibaldi" who couldn't hear clearly.

Shang Jianyao took on the role of translator, seemingly enjoying it.

After "Garibaldi" understood what Jiang Baimian was asking, he quickly gave an answer:

"The general situation of the two targets has been figured out and written in the information. In addition, the company has also prepared 1,000 Ore for you as mission funds to facilitate your bribing the people around the target."

The company is quite generous this time... The intelligence network in Initial City seems to be very rich too... Jiang Baimian murmured with a little surprise after hearing Shang Jianyao's retelling.

However, this is still a bit far from the Ore needed to trade for military exoskeletons and mechanical arms.

"Garibaldi" continued:

"What else do you need?"

Jiang Baimian looked at Shang Jianyao, and after a few seconds of silence, said:

"I want detailed information about the 'Anti-Intellectualism Church' assassinating Council Elder Soles.

"Uh, we had a conflict with the 'Anti-Intellectualism Church' in Wildgrass City, and we found their traces again not long after arriving in Initial City, so we have to take precautions early."

She spoke grandly, and every word was the truth.

"Okay, give us some time." "Garibaldi" did not shirk.

After Shang Jianyao's translation, Jiang Baimian thought for a while and asked:

"What is there to pay attention to in Initial City recently?"

"Garibaldi" recalled for a moment and said:

"Nothing special, if I have to say, there are barely two things: one is that a strange white giant wolf has appeared in the Northern Mountain Range, you can go to the Hunter's Guild to find out the details; the other is that Gaius, a new member of the Council, has repeatedly expressed radical views at citizen gatherings, which has caused dissatisfaction among many council members, including Inspector Alexander."

Members of the Council can be called Elders, Senators, Councilors, or Seniors.

"Initial City" nominally has three giants, namely the Governor, the Inspector, and the Chief of Homeland Security, the latter also known as the Commander, but currently held concurrently by Governor Beuris.

--The three giants are all elected by the Council, once every four years.

Shang Jianyao repeated "Garibaldi's" words verbatim with his amazing memory.

This made "Garibaldi" feel inexplicably that the other party was being sarcastic:

This kind of retelling only needs to express the meaning clearly, how can there be full text recitation, not even letting go of interjections?

Jiang Baimian listened carefully and thought for a while and said:

"I don't have anything else to ask. If there is anything I need your help with in the future, I will contact you again."

"It's not about who is helping who, this is our job, collaboration might be better." "Garibaldi" said politely, while getting up and saying, "I'll leave the things on the table, don't forget them."

As soon as he finished speaking, he had already left his seat and walked towards the door of the Silver Candle Cafe.

In order not to let others discover and raise questions, searching for the owner, Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian waited only a little while before turning their bodies and looking at the table behind them.

There was a small gray cloth bag placed there.

Shang Jianyao was sitting on the outside and his movements were more relaxed. He took the cloth bag back first and hid it in his arms.

During this process, he and Jiang Baimian both saw the side of "Garibaldi's" body.

This informant was less than 1.75 meters tall, wearing a very old black thin coat, and wearing a peaked cap with the brim pulled very low.

While walking, his left hand was always holding the hat, blocking his face.

Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao didn't look much, withdrew their gazes, straightened their bodies, and continued drinking their coffee.

After waiting for almost ten more minutes, they slowly got up, left the cafe, and got into the jeep parked nearby.

Bai Chen, Long Yuehong, and Genava waited for a while before leaving one after another, returning to the gray off-road vehicle after confirming that there were no other monitors around.

...

Ugo Hotel, Room 202.

Jiang Baimian held some of the information, flipping through it while saying:

"Marcus really likes to watch gladiatorial combats..."

A kind of entertainment program is popular in Initial City, that is, to select strong people from prisoners and slaves, and let them fight each other to determine the final winner.

The winner will gain freedom and become a member of the Council Guard or a private army member of a nobleman.

"Avia really likes to take baths, she turned half of her house into a bathroom." Long Yuehong also shared what he saw.

This refers to 14 Rounded Hill Street in the Golden Apple District.

"It's really enviable." Jiang Baimian smiled and stood up, walking towards the bathroom.

As she approached it, she felt the light dim a little, and the half-closed wooden door had closed tightly at some point.

Then, she heard he-he sounds coming from inside.

It was like a beast panting, wailing, roaring, making people shudder.

Jiang Baimian suddenly looked around and saw that the room was pitch black.

In an instant, she opened her eyes and found herself lying on the bed.

The moonlight outside the window shone faintly through the curtains.

Just now, it was just a dream.

A dream that mixed the scene of the "Old Task Force" discussing the data in the evening with the encounter of the two of them in the afternoon.

Jiang Baimian felt something and turned her head in doubt, seeing that Shang Jianyao had already sat up, pondering something in the dark.

"You're awake too?" Shang Jianyao asked.

Jiang Baimian "hmm"ed, recalling and said:

"I dreamed about what happened in the afternoon, the thing about hearing strange noises in the boss's room, and then I woke up in fright."

Shang Jianyao looked at her and said calmly:

"Me too."