A Two-Way Journey / A Truly Legitimate Company

Although Eden had little experience in this area, he had spent two days in Dusk Alley and had gained some understanding of related matters.

"Incomprehensible! You—"

Before Vil-V could finish speaking, Liu Bai's figure disappeared from their sight.

"What are you doing?"

Liu Bai's voice suddenly rang in Pardofelis's ear.

"Whoa! Boss, don't scare me like that!"

Pardofelis nearly collapsed, patting her chest to catch her breath.

"Boss, where did you go? Did you go find reinforcements?"

"Yes, because constantly triggering teleportation during the escape is just too unpleasant."

Liu Bai stretched.

"So, what's going on here...?"

Liu Bai looked at the strings of mushrooms being roasted over the fire.

"Roasted mushrooms? Aren't you afraid of getting poisoned?"

"Um... I feel like it's probably not poisonous... Aren't they all very plain-looking?"

Pardofelis tilted her head.

"Idiot, poisonous mushrooms don't have to be brightly colored."

Liu Bai couldn't help but tap Pardo's head again, but the next moment, Liu Bai laughed out loud.

"But then again, Pardo you feel alright, then you really are alright... I still have faith in your luck. By the way, where are Sakura and Rin? Did they leave?"

"No, the two of them are looking around for any fruit to eat. Yingjie and I both think we should stick together for warmth now."

Chapter 332 Two-Way Trip

"She would make such a decision?" Liu Bai looked up at the sky and smiled.

Although Liu Bai's choice of words carried a hint of surprise, his tone was perfectly natural.

The current Sakura is not the cold-blooded swordsman who wandered thousands of miles in our memory. Although she carries a short sword with her, she is still just a high school student.

"Boss, when will we be rescued?"

Pardofelis's attention was completely off from Liu Bai's incongruous words and tone of remark; she went straight to the most urgent question.

"Hmm... a day or two?"

Liu Bai made a rough estimate of the speed at which the Moth Chasers to Fire.

"But before that, a nuclear bomb might fall on our heads."

"Waaaaah!? Boss, don't say such a scary thing with a smile on your face!"

Pardofelis was completely furious.

Although she is an educator, that doesn't mean she doesn't know what a nuclear bomb is!

"Don't worry, it's just 'maybe,' Pardo, you have to believe in your luck."

Liu Bai said leisurely.

When he previously proposed drawing up a "safe zone," Mobius rejected it. Mobius's meaning was quite clear—if you are not in the Herrscher's area of operation, nuclear bombs will not affect you, but if you are unlucky enough to be in the Herrscher's area of operation... well, I'm sorry.

It is full of Mobius- esque coldness.

"I feel like I should write my will now..." Pardo with a mournful face.

Although she was lucky, it was too reckless to gamble her life on luck.

"Oh... if you were to write a will, who would you want to write it to, Pardo?" Liu Bai suddenly asked this question.

Pardofelis paused briefly to think about the question before answering after a few seconds:

"Sister Eden, and Sister Aponia ... right? Although I'm quite afraid of her, Sister Aponia has taken good care of me..."

After saying that, Pardofelis couldn't help but give a wry smile again.

"Um... thinking about it, I don't really have many people I need to leave a will for. Of course, boss, you're right here with me, so I don't need to leave you a will, right?"

"By the way, why do you call Aponia 'sister'?"

"Huh? Sister Aponia is a nun, isn't she?" Pardofelis's face showed a puzzled expression. "Could it be that, as Sister Eden said, Sister Aponia believed in an evil god?"

"... Don't listen to Eden's nonsense."

Liu Bai was speechless. Evil god and all that... Eden, you really dare to say that.

You might as well just say Aponia is a succubus or something!

Liu Bai tapped Pardo on the head, then explained, "What I mean is, Pardo, why don't you call Aponia 'sister'?"

"Um... because Sister Aponia doesn't seem very approachable?"

Pardo pushed Liu Bai's head away, a somewhat embarrassed expression on her face.

"Actually, my intuition tells me that Sister Aponia might be quite dangerous, so I usually keep a distance from Aponia."

"So you mean we can't afford to offend them?"

"Yes, we can't afford to offend them at all."

Pardofelis nodded in agreement.

After a while, two footsteps came from the side.

"...'Boss'? Where did you just go?"

Sakura, carrying a bunch of fruit in her clothes, came back from the side with a bell.

Using a sailor uniform to carry fruit... that really shows off a great belly.

Liu Bai withdrew his gaze from Ying Jie's conspicuous white belly and asked, half-jokingly, "Aren't you cold?"

"...fine."

With a stern face, Ying shook all the fruit she was carrying onto the ground.

Is this because she's shy?

Liu Bai gave Ying a friendly smile, and Liu Bai nodded somewhat awkwardly in response.

Sakura is, after all, a young girl in the prime of her life. She would definitely feel embarrassed if a strange man saw her lower abdomen.

Plus... it is indeed a bit chilly.

Sakura patted the dust off her sailor uniform, trying to appear more natural.

"So, 'Boss' Mr., where did you just go? And... when you were running away, I think I saw you floating?"

Sakura wasn't stupid; she still remembered some of the strange things this man had done during their short escape.

For example, it suddenly appears when the disaster just happened, and it floats when it escapes. Sometimes it can't keep up with you and Pardo, but when you turn around, you can see it next to you.

"My name is Liu Bai." Liu Bai first introduced himself, then selectively recounted his previous conversation with Mobius to Sakura, a victim of the disaster, so that Sakura could clearly understand the current situation.

Then, Sakura's expression visibly darkened.

"...I see."

Faced with the potential destruction of her hometown, Sakura remained remarkably calm, a calmness that chilled the heart.

"Sister, Dad, Mom..." Rin tugged at Sakura's sleeve, and Sakura could only silently stroke Rin's head.

The intelligent Ling clearly sensed a painful reality from her sister's silence, and tears welled up in her eyes, but she only sobbed twice before falling silent.

This also dampened Pardofelis's spirits considerably. It wasn't until the smell of burnt mushrooms wafted out that everyone present came back to their senses.

Pardo hurriedly picked up the mushroom skewers, while Ying hugged her younger sister and looked at Liu Bai.

"Liu Bai, may I ask you, who exactly are you?"

Obviously, it's impossible for a talent scout to know so much information. If Sakura was somewhat skeptical about the talent scout's identity before the disaster, she no longer believes it at all.

—After all, she's not stupid.

However, despite the questioning, Sakura's tone and posture were very humble.

Sakura realized something at that moment: the number of victims of this disaster would probably be alarming. She, a high school student, didn't know how the victims would be resettled, but one thing Sakura was very clear about was that she and her sister would be left destitute from today onwards.

The intense sense of crisis emanating from one's own home at the moment disaster strikes is not an exaggeration.

Therefore, as the eldest sister, Sakura must now begin to consider the future of both her and her sister.

If it weren't for Rin, Sakura could easily wander the world alone, and with her martial arts skills, she could certainly make a living. But her younger sister is still too young...

With these considerations in mind, Sakura's best option now is to get closer to the mysterious Liu Bai in front of her.

After all, judging from the other party's previous actions, it should be an attempt to recruit him... In a sense, this can be considered a two-way street.

"I... I'm just an agent at a talent agency—Ms. Sakura, Ms. Rin, would you like to learn more about our ELM company?"

Chapter 333 A Really Legitimate Company

"... A legitimate company?"

After listening to Liu Bai's long-winded explanation, Sakura asked a question with a blank expression on her face.

"Miss Ying, were you listening to what I was saying?" Liu Bai's expression suddenly calmed down.

"I'm listening, but I don't understand."

Sakura answered very honestly.

Liu Bai's lips twitched. You're really something. You clearly didn't understand, but you were nodding seriously just now, acting as if you understood everything.

Whenever Ying showed any signs of being absent-minded or mentally unstable like Pardo, Liu Bai would shut up—after all, Liu Bai had plenty of experience with mentally challenged children among his own.

But after I finished rambling on and on, you said you didn't understand—are you just picking a fight?

Sakura looked completely innocent. As a member of a martial arts family, she had only been exposed to a handful of electrical appliances since childhood. As for celebrity companies, idol packaging, singing, dancing, and rapping, these were all completely foreign to her.

As for why he nodded and agreed with a serious expression... isn't that just basic etiquette when listening to someone?

So after listening to the conversation in a calm and blank state of mind, Sakura wanted to ask one question: Is this a legitimate company?

"So you're a legitimate company?"

"A legitimate company, a company that couldn't be more legitimate."

Liu Bai forced himself to calm down and replied.

"They have official positions."

Compared to other organizations that are at most state-owned, ELM is directly under the United Nations.

"Assembly line?"

"In a sense it is—but definitely not the assembly line you're imagining."

Does it include meals and accommodation?

"Free meals and accommodation, five social insurances and one housing fund, 955 workday."

This girl clearly didn't take a single word she said to heart.

In this simple question and answer session, Sakura nodded. Although she didn't understand any of the job details, she was still quite satisfied with the terms.

She herself doesn't care much about salary or anything like that; the most important thing is that food and accommodation are provided so that she and her sister can have a more stable life.

Sakura thought for a moment, then glanced at Rin subconsciously, and immediately thought of another problem, "Rin still needs to go to school, she can't work for you."

"Ah... no problem with that."

Liu Bai nodded. He felt that Ying probably hadn't figured out what the job entailed yet, but the requirement was indeed something that didn't matter to her, and Ling was indeed not suitable for appearing on camera at her age.

"Eh? Sakura-nee, aren't you also in school?" Pardofelis noticed the blind spot.

"I'm already in high school. Theoretically, I should inherit the family business after graduation. For me, whether I finish high school or not doesn't really matter. Besides, I'll probably have to do some temporary work to support the family business anyway, so it won't make much difference."