Sharp Spear Tavern, in front of the counter,
"Eager Thief paid you a visit yesterday?"
Old One-Eye said in considerable surprise.
"Yeah. That little thief was slipperier than a loach. He actually slipped right out of my grasp," Zhou Yun said gloomily as he drank the crimson liquor in his cup.
A thief from the Lower Hive had actually escaped from his hands.
Zhou Yun found that hard to take.
Lena might have something wrong with her head, but her psychic abilities were still somewhat capable.
Zhou Yun could fight her evenly, yet he could not catch a thief.
The Lower Hive of Ashford seemed to be getting a little too competitive.
"What shocked me was that you actually caught Eager Thief red-handed."
The surprise in Old One-Eye's tone did not lessen.
"Some people say Eager Thief possesses some kind of precognitive ability."
"He can sense in advance when his victims will return home and when stealing will absolutely go unnoticed."
"That is why nobody has ever seen Eager Thief in the act. Usually, all he leaves his victims is an iron door melted through."
Zhou Yun frowned upon hearing this.
Eager Thief's precognitive ability sounded rather powerful.
He could precisely avoid danger and choose the right time to strike.
At least it sounded more reliable than Lena's ridiculous precognitive dreams.
Zhou Yun glanced at the winged figure in the white light and asked,
"Oi, buddy."
"Did you find anything? Is it Chaos corruption?"
"...I'm not entirely sure." The winged figure in the white light sounded somewhat uncertain.
Not sure. That answer was rather thought-provoking.
Zhou Yun stroked his chin and temporarily put the question aside.
He had no interest in playing cat and mouse.
Zhou Yun looked at Old One-Eye, tapped the table, and asked, "What did your boss say?"
"It can be arranged." Old One-Eye nodded.
Before Zhou Yun could ask the price, Old One-Eye changed the subject.
"My superior can get you two passes to the Upper Hive."
"These passes will be very useful. More useful than you imagine."
"Go directly to the checkpoint gate. The PDF there will give you the passes."
Zhou Yun's brows furrowed slightly when he heard Old One-Eye's words.
The PDF? The Planetary Defense Force was giving us the passes?
Zhou Yun looked Old One-Eye up and down.
Old One-Eye's superior was pretty high-ranking.
A guess suddenly surfaced in Zhou Yun's mind, but he did not voice it.
"What does he want?" Zhou Yun asked, tapping the table.
"He wants to meet you in the Upper Hive," Old One-Eye said evenly.
"He has that much nerve?"
Zhou Yun could not help laughing.
"Isn't he afraid I'm Hellworm's lackey?"
When Zhou Yun spoke Hellworm's name,
he noticed Old One-Eye's body stiffen slightly,
as if the name carried some kind of curse.
Only after taking a deep breath did he continue speaking to Zhou Yun. "You even know about that."
Old One-Eye leaned a little closer to Zhou Yun and lowered his voice.
"Don't say its name too loudly. Hellworm will hear you."
The corner of Zhou Yun's eye twitched slightly. It seemed his guess had been correct.
Old One-Eye worked for Governor Augustus Flax.
"I was wondering whether you might be an Ordo Hereticus informant. So you're the governor's man."
"...I am. I used to be a guard at the governor's palace in Apex Hive."
Old One-Eye nodded softly, stroking his single eye.
"But I was an unqualified guard. Under the governor's leadership, we tried to kill Hellworm."
"But when we truly faced Hellworm... it was still very small then, yet we were still afraid."
"At the time, I seemed to see a monster embodying every evil thought in the human world. We all trembled before it."
Old One-Eye sighed.
Hellworm's terrifying figure seemed reflected in his eye.
That young Genestealer patriarch had crawled through the palace, extending its claws.
"In that brief instant of terror, Hellworm took one of my eyes with its claws and escaped through the pipes into the Lower Hive."
"Everything that has happened since was my fault. I betrayed everything the Emperor taught and let a blasphemous xenos escape."
"The governor gave me a chance to make up for that mistake. Nearly all the guards from back then went to the Lower Hive to search for traces of Hellworm."
"But most of my old comrades have now been eliminated. I am one of the few survivors."
Old One-Eye fell silent.
It seemed the fear of the past had swallowed him once again.
Zhou Yun stared at Old One-Eye, waiting for him to speak.
"I know you also have a conflict with Hellworm."
Old One-Eye suddenly smiled.
"Heh. Even without a conflict, it is enough that you know what kind of monster Hellworm is."
"We can cooperate, Zhou Yun," he said. "The governor wants to discuss cooperation with you."
"We both want to fight Hellworm, don't we?"
"These passes are the beginning of our cooperation."
"What about the money? How much for two passes?" Zhou Yun said with a wave of his hand.
Old One-Eye froze slightly.
"The governor does not care about such a small amount of money," he said.
"That won't do. Name a price!" Zhou Yun said decisively.
Old One-Eye was stunned. After a moment, he gestured a price.
"No, add more! It needs to be more expensive!"
"Those are two passes from the Upper Hive. How can you not sell them at a higher price?"
Zhou Yun said righteously.
Old One-Eye hesitated for a while, then gestured an even higher price.
"Two legal, fully authorized passes to the Upper Hive."
Zhou Yun showed Lena a price twice what Old One-Eye had quoted him.
Lena looked astonished, staring in disbelief at Zhou Yun's quote for the two Upper Hive passes.
"Two Upper Hive passes... and they're actually legal and fully authorized?"
Lena's gaze drifted, as though she could not believe it.
"But this price..."
There was hesitation in her voice.
"Don't worry. I had to talk my head off to negotiate this price for you."
"I'm giving the best price to family."
Zhou Yun pointed at the price on the table, his expression utterly sincere.
But inwardly, he felt a little uncertain.
He had no clear idea what Upper Hive passes were supposed to cost.
Was doubling it and selling them to Lena at a one-hundred-percent profit too expensive?
"Your bargaining skills are incredible!"
Lena could not help clicking her tongue.
"Even the smugglers I found charged more than this."
"Are these passes reliable?"
Hearing the hesitation in Lena's voice, the corner of Zhou Yun's eye twitched, and a wave of regret rose in his heart.
Damn it, I quoted too low!
"Ahem, ahem."
Zhou Yun hurriedly coughed twice and said,
"I meant that was the price for one pass."
"There are two of us, so it has to be doubled!"
The suspicion in Lena's eyes immediately vanished, and a smile appeared on her face.
She said happily, "That makes more sense."
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