He Ao's gaze shifted to the child's pistol. Under the dim lights, it reflected the faint sheen unique to plastic.
The child was probably holding nothing more than a toy gun.
Selina turned around at that moment. Instinctively, she wanted to pull He Ao behind her. Guns could not hurt her, but they could hurt him.
But He Ao slowly crouched down, bringing his head level with the little boy's. The boy nervously pointed the "gun" in his hand at He Ao's forehead.
He Ao gave him a gentle smile, held out the hot dog in his hand, and said, "How about I trade this hot dog for the gun in your hand? This is a transaction, not robbery. It's legal."
The little boy looked at the hot dog in He Ao's hand and swallowed, his throat bobbing slightly. He nodded. "Okay."
As he spoke, he snatched the hot dog from He Ao's hand and ran into the pitch-black street beside them, where the streetlights had broken down.
But only a few seconds later, he ran back and placed the "gun" one or two meters in front of He Ao.
Then he darted away again.
He was a child who kept his word.
Watching him run off, He Ao stepped forward and picked up the "gun."
The gun was very light. It really was a toy gun. He Ao opened the magazine and found only a single plastic bullet stained with a little mud. It looked like it had been reused many times.
He put the gun away in his pocket and stood up, only to meet Selina's faintly amused gaze.
"Sorry," He Ao said awkwardly. After all, Selina had bought that hot dog for him. Using someone else's things to do a good deed, right in front of them, was a little shameless.
So he naturally stepped into the line for hot dogs and said with a smile, "That hot dog got me craving one. I'll line up and buy another. Is there anything else you want? Let me treat you to something too."
He Ao had not eaten all day, and he had just gone through intense physical exertion, so he really was hungry. Buying another one would also show that he had not disliked the hot dog Selina bought; he had simply given it away because of an unexpected situation.
Selina held her hot dog, thought for a moment, then tilted her head and smiled. "A cola."
It took He Ao another half hour in line before he managed to buy a hot dog.
The one Selina had bought him was apparently the 15 Federal currency Super Invincible Jumbo Deluxe Hot Dog—basically the most expensive hot dog the shop sold.
A 15 Federal currency hot dog cost more than a tenth of He Ao's daily wage, but he gritted his teeth and bought it anyway. Compared to the hot dog, the cola was much cheaper, at only 1.5 Federal currency.
He Ao bought one hot dog and two colas, returned to Selina's side, and handed her a cola.
Either his blonde, mature beauty of a boss had an especially high salary, or she was a little rich girl.
"Won't we miss something like this?"
He Ao curiously looked at the entrance to the Crown Casino across from them. The two of them did not look like they were out working at all; they looked more like they were out having fun.
"It's fine. I'm watching."
Selina took a bite of her hot dog and answered vaguely.
He Ao also took a bite of his hot dog, sipped his cola, and looked at the resplendent entrance.
Then, all of a sudden, he froze.
As the food entered his stomach, he felt a trace of faint energy appear in his throat.
His mind raced as he recalled the pathways involving the throat in that little book. He found it quickly.
The second page of the book contained a pathway related to the throat. It was also quite short: starting from the throat, passing through the left shoulder and elbow to the index finger, then returning through the left shoulder, throat, and nasal cavity, circling around through the right shoulder to the right index finger, and finally returning to the throat.
He Ao tried to guide the energy along the pathway described on the second page, but it was exhausted the moment it left his throat.
Even after he finished the entire hot dog, the energy never broke through the area around his throat.
Still, this opened up a new line of thought for He Ao. Energy existed not only in the air, but also in the food he ate.
But his stomach capacity seemed limited. After that huge hot dog and a cup of cola, he was already slightly full.
It seemed this energy was not converted from food. It simply existed within the food and entered the body along with it.
If food itself was a storage medium, then did different foods contain different amounts of energy?
"Let's go. Back to the car."
After eating and drinking her fill, Selina tossed the wrapper into the nearby trash can.
He Ao followed her lead, threw away his own trash, and got into the car with her.
The moment he got in, the doors shut at once. The convertible's rain cover slowly unfolded, and the windows gradually rose, turning into dark one-way glass.
Pop-up windows appeared one after another on the car windows. The huge windshield in front of He Ao also gradually darkened, and dozens of surveillance feeds appeared neatly arranged across it.
The enormous windshield was also a display.
These surveillance feeds basically covered every corner around the entrance to the Crown Casino.
"What is this?"
He Ao was stunned by the sudden sci-fi scene.
"What I can see," Selina shrugged. "These are all feeds captured by the cameras installed on this car."
So when Selina said she was watching, she really had been watching the entire time.
"So do we just keep staring at all these surveillance feeds?"
He Ao looked blankly at the densely packed images.
"No," Selina reclined the driver's seat. "I set up similarity detection. If someone resembling Mu Xiu appears, the system will automatically sound an alarm. I'm going to sleep for a while. Wake me if there's an alert. The Crown Casino only has this one entrance, so guarding this place is enough."
"Shouldn't we go in and search first?" He Ao asked doubtfully. "What if Mu Xiu got here before us?"
"The Crown Casino nominally belongs to the Money Rat Gang, but it is actually controlled through layers of indirect shareholding by the Dawn City Grain Group and the Nord Financial Consortium. We can't go in without a legitimate reason. But they'll 'conduct an internal inspection' of the casino staff to make sure Mu Xiu hasn't slipped inside. All we need to do is keep watch."
After saying that, Selina closed her eyes. Her chest rose and fell slightly, and her breathing became even, as though she had already fallen deeply asleep.
If he had not once wrapped Selina in his tentacles, He Ao sometimes would not have realized that she was a purely mechanical body.
Her body was simply too humanlike.
During the novice mission, the system had still labeled Selina as a "Cybernetic Human." Now, even that label was gone. It seemed to be a benefit exclusive to newcomers.
He Ao leaned back against the seat, opened his personal device, and searched for "Dawn City."
At last, he had the time to properly learn about this city.
At the far end of the street, a hooded figure standing far away raised their head and glanced at the resplendent casino.
Then they casually stopped a passerby.
Before you continue