I'm on the Ark, and I start out as Gretchen.

"..."

After hearing An Suo's evaluation of the announcement she had sent out, Pado's heterochromatic eyes showed a hint of surprise, but she did not rush to say anything. Instead, she waited curiously for what would follow.

"As for why I say this, it's because that announcement only appeased those who were incited and their emotions were stirred up, but these people were not the real troublemakers at all. The real culprits hidden deep inside don't care about such things at all."

“Not only will they not care, they might even be angered by this announcement and become even more ruthless.”

After giving a brief explanation, before Pado could ask any more questions, An Suo quickly picked up his chopsticks and shoveled two more mouthfuls of rice into his mouth.

She realized that her "boss" seemed very interested in this matter, so to prevent the food from getting cold by the time he answered her questions, she decided to sneak in a few more bites for now.

Noticing her subtle movements, Pado waited quietly until she finished her two bites of rice before speaking slowly and deliberately:

"What kind of people are those? And what about the relationship you mentioned earlier... Wait, those guys aren't the ones who robbed you, are they?"

"Cough...cough..."

An Suo, who was quietly drinking water and listening to Pado talk, was so startled by her sudden change of topic and guess that she choked.

"Hey, how could you be so careless?"

Completely oblivious to what she had said, Pado shrugged lightly, then stood up and walked behind An Suo to help her catch her breath.

"Cough... I'm fine, so Miss Phyllis already knew about this?" An Su waved his hand and said quickly after catching his breath.

Perhaps because Pado's guess was too accurate, even with the precedent of asking before, Miss Purple Rabbit couldn't help but begin to suspect that the person in front of her already knew and was just asking to amuse herself.

"Oh dear, how could that be! If we had known earlier, we wouldn't have gone to ask you about the money! We were just guessing."

"But judging from your reaction, I think I guessed right?"

After hearing An Suo's words, Pado blinked innocently and explained.

"..."

After silently observing the innocent-looking cat for a while, An Suo resignedly admitted, "Yes, my money was indeed stolen by those people."

"Those people are all infected individuals with extremely abnormal personalities who are extremely hostile to non-infected people... Honestly, in my opinion, they are all crazy!"

“They complain about this and that all the time, using the excuse of injustice to cause trouble and bully others in the slums... clearly, most of those they bully are the weak infected people.”

Although Anso lowered her voice when she spoke to Pado, even her soft voice couldn't hide the anger in her words.

"And there's more..."

……

"..."

After listening quietly to all of An Suo's complaints and waiting for her to calm down, Pado leaned closer to her with a sly expression and whispered, "An Suo, do you want revenge? We can help you!"

Although, given her cat-like nature and preference for peace and quiet, she normally doesn't like to take the initiative to resolve other people's problems. However, this is only under normal circumstances; this time... is an exception.

Since Pado originally intended to target those who still planned to cause trouble after the announcement, she didn't mind helping her underlings get revenge as well, considering it payment for the information they received from her.

This saves the cat the trouble of investigating or waiting for that group of people.

It jumped out on its own.

"Huh? Revenge? You...you're not kidding, are you?!" Upon hearing Pado's words, An Suo's expression changed drastically.

Admittedly, Miss Purple Rabbit didn't like her "weird boss" and didn't know what kind of power she had, but thinking about the crazy behavior of those lunatics she had seen before, she felt it was necessary to give them a warning, just for the sake of the money and the meal.

"Don't blame me for not warning you, those guys are real lunatics, they have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. They've done a lot of things to deliberately turn non-infected people like you into infected people, and they even take pleasure in it."

At this point, An Suo paused slightly, then turned his face away slightly before continuing:

"If you don't want to end up like me, don't go around getting involved with those guys."

"There are many ways, such as becoming an infected person..."

Upon hearing this, Pado was not frightened by what An Suo said. Instead, she seemed to remember something, and her expression became strange.

The keywords "slum," "methods," and "becoming infected" almost instantly reminded Maomao of the "accident" that led Chen Huijie and Jiu to become infected.

The cause of that accident...

"Those guys you're talking about don't have ore bombs, do they...?"

Now it was Pado's turn to change her expression when she suddenly thought of a certain possibility. Although she herself wasn't afraid of such things, not only was she not afraid, she could even toss them around like toys, but... she couldn't help but feel that others were afraid of them!

P.S.: I stayed up late again. I'm breaking out in patches all over my body, and my stomach hurts. It's so uncomfortable. I've revised this chapter repeatedly, but I still don't think it's good enough. I'll try to revise it again tomorrow when I have some free time. The recent plot has also been a bit slow, so I'll try to speed it up.

Chapter 31 The Cat on the Road

The streets and alleys of the slums are always intricate and complex, like graves that can bury people. Even the most bustling streets can only be seen through narrow gaps.

Everyone's actions are always swift and purposeful; those who wander aimlessly are always looked down upon in the slum world.

However, there are clearly a few exceptions in today's slums.

Having already investigated the area, the three members of the Royal Guard were now leaning against a street corner, silently contemplating what to do next.

At this moment, Swire stared at the trash can with a grim expression, while Chen was writing down what he had just witnessed in his notebook at lightning speed, and he also looked rather unwell.

Hoshiguma, as if returning to her hometown, leaned comfortably against the cement utility pole covered with small advertisements and large printed recruitment documents.

Their investigation in this area went as smoothly as before. However, they also encountered many things they had never seen before in this more chaotic place.

Those sights and experiences nearly made Swire's hair stand on end.

The room reeked of vomit containing Originium particles, and a 10-year-old girl struggling to survive with her seriously ill parents... and many other people struggling on the brink of life and death.

Although Swire already knew from written records that the notorious thief had been helping the people of the slums in his own way, documents are just documents; they are nowhere near as impactful as witnessing it firsthand…

She was certain, at least, that without the thieves' supplies, this family and these people wouldn't have survived for long...

So after witnessing these things firsthand, Swire was unsure how to investigate the thief's affairs... You see, at this moment, there were quite a few families here who were relying on the thief for survival.

That's why the slums are the place she hates coming to the most...

Standing to the side, Swire, who had been unconsciously fiddling with a strand of her golden hair behind her ear, suddenly seemed to have made up her mind. She looked up at Hoshiguma and said, "If the Lungmen Thieves are caught, how many people will die in this place this winter?"

"what?"

Upon hearing this, Hoshiguma was taken aback at first, giving Swire a strange look before silently organizing her thoughts. She was considering how to describe what she had witnessed without sounding too cruel.

Before Hoshiguma could speak, Chen Xian closed his notebook, his face cold, and said, "The number of lives lost in Lungmen winters is never small..."

As soon as they finished speaking, Chen and Hoshiguma suddenly exchanged a glance, and then, as if confirming something, each of them took one arm of Swire, who was in a bad mood, and "guided" her to move.

"Eh?"

Suddenly forced to move by being pressed close and sandwiched between two colleagues, Swire couldn't help but let out a small gasp.

However, neither of them offered an explanation at the moment; their long-standing collaboration had given them an extraordinary understanding.

So after Hoshiguma realized that the "surveillance" behind her had suddenly changed, she began to pass on information to Chen and confirm things.

Chen also understood Hoshiguma's message very well, and after carefully sensing it, he confirmed it.

It's fair to say that for undercover investigators, being too conspicuous and drawing attention to oneself is never a good thing. Unfortunately, apart from Hoshiguma, who blended in perfectly, the other two seemed somewhat out of place.

Although the three of them sensed that someone was watching them after entering the area, the feeling was so subtle that they chose to ignore it for the time being and continue to complete their mission, letting the person follow them to see what these guys were up to.

but

Just now, the feeling of being monitored became increasingly intense, accompanied by a strong sense of malice... This made Chen, with his accurate intuition, and the experienced Hoshiguma abandon their plan to stay here any longer. They grabbed the out-of-focus Swire and left.

This time, because he could roughly understand and empathize with Swire's absent-mindedness, Chen surprisingly did not say anything to criticize her.

After all, when she first came to the slums, she wasn't much better off than Char Siu Cat... and for some reason, her feelings were even more complicated.

"So, what happened? Why are you suddenly carrying me so fast?" As she spoke, Swire instinctively tried to break free from their "restraints".

Honestly, Hoshiguma is fine, but she definitely doesn't want to be so closely associated with that damn dragon...

However, before Swire could break free, Hoshiguma's whispered words in her ear extinguished her thoughts.

"The person who has been following and monitoring us seems to have changed. I don't know if he couldn't hold back anymore or if it's been replaced... There were a lot of people there just now, let's go to a less crowded place now."

"..."

After hearing the explanation, Shi Huaiya nodded almost imperceptibly, then, knowing she was in the wrong, stopped resisting and let the two of them "flank" her as they continued their actions.

Although she didn't like it, she wasn't unreasonable. Since it was a serious matter, she would naturally cooperate.

Before long, the three of them arrived at the narrow end of a deserted construction site. They slowed down and focused their attention on what the people following them would do.

However, what happened next was beyond the expectations of the three of them. The owner of the malicious gaze did not show up, but instead disappeared.

Upon noticing this, Chen and Hoshiguma both frowned, then exchanged a glance before releasing their grip on Swire.

Swire, who had been walking very fast while being linked with someone, almost lost her balance when she was suddenly let go. After shaking herself, she spoke, "Couldn't you have given me some mental preparation?"

"Cough cough..."

Hoshiguma coughed twice and said in a high-pitched voice, "Swire, shall we have guppies tonight?"

"Swire, we haven't finished watching the movie about the Watchers yet. It seems like someone else is even more eager to see it than I am. Do you want to show it to him later?"

"Um……"

As soon as Hoshiguma finished speaking, Swire immediately realized that Gubidon was extremely unpalatable, but it liked to monitor its prey and act as bait. "The Monitor" was a movie that had been playing in Lungmen these past two days, telling a story of surveillance and counter-surveillance.

Recalling her mistake, Swire blushed and grinned, revealing her fangs as she said fiercely, "Ahhh... fine, I'll pay for lunch when we get back, this time it's on me."

"Char siu rice with three eggs, please." Hoshiguma smiled.

"Well, at least nothing went wrong... But what is this place?" Looking at the unfinished construction site in front of her, Swire looked at Hoshiguma with some confusion and asked.

Upon hearing this, Hoshiguma dropped her joking expression and earnestly explained to the two people beside her, "This place is called Black Street, a place where gang members bury traitors."

"So what's our next move? The investigation is over. Should we continue to lure out those hiding in the shadows, or go straight back?" After hearing Hoshiguma's explanation, Swire nodded slightly and then continued.

Before coming here, the three of them thought that the problem with the last conflict where the police officers were injured was caused by ordinary people here, but now it seems that there is a deeper reason or a mastermind behind it.

Chen waved his hand and said, "Let's go back. We've done enough investigation, and there's no need to send anyone else. It's pointless. Let's try a different approach."

The other two had no objection to Chen's decision.

However, this time the three might be disappointed. Because sometimes surveillance doesn't necessarily require the eyes...

On one side of the narrow alley, amidst the abandoned corner tower and the collapsed concrete slabs, crossbows were already nocked.

The sound of crossbow bolts breaking the silence of the tombstones.

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