Clutching his ringing phone, Hao Ren was extremely agitated. His heart was trembling, his thoughts were trembling, and he even felt his hands trembling—Nokia's vibration was truly extraordinary. Hao Ren believed that if he left this old phone on vibrate and threw it onto the ground, it could run at least twenty miles an hour...
Of course, ordinary calls definitely wouldn't do this. Only when Raven 12345 called did that neurotic woman seem to use some special power, making a phone rattle like a tractor. This completely ensured that Hao Ren wouldn't miss her calls—Lily across the street should have heard the noise by now.
"Hello?" Hao Ren answered the call and cautiously said hello, afraid that Raven 12345 had come up with some other way to scare him.
"Yo, Hao Ren, still alive? Taking good care of your new guest?" Raven 12345's hearty voice came through the receiver, still as lively as it had been a few days ago. "Oh, my investigation last time was wrong. You don't just have a Werewolf at home—you should have a Bloodkin too... Is she over there with you? Doing well? Nothing unusual these past few days? I went on a business trip recently. Let me tell you about the scenery in the Blue Corner Galaxy..."
Raven 12345 bombarded Hao Ren with words like popping beans, nearly leaving him dazed. Fortunately, he reacted in time and interrupted the slightly neurotic woman. "Wait, wait! I need to ask you about something!"
"Something? What?" Raven 12345 sounded puzzled. "Your salary? Then wait a moment. I haven't figured out how to pay you yet. Oh, you mean this month's benefits? But it's not the end of the month yet..."
"Can you let me speak first!" Hao Ren finally couldn't hold back and shouted. But the instant the words left his mouth, he quickly hunched his neck, thinking, This is bad—the 'Goddess' obviously has a somewhat abnormal personality. I yelled at her like that. Maybe Five Thunders Crashing Top will strike me in a few seconds.
Hao Ren hunched his neck and waited several seconds, but heard no thunder outside. Raven merely fell silent for a few seconds before speaking awkwardly. "Oh, go ahead, go ahead. I was just a little excited after returning from my business trip. Heh heh heh..."
Hao Ren wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He hadn't expected her to be so easygoing. He then organized his thoughts. "Here's what happened. You left in such a hurry that there were many things I never figured out. And a couple of days ago, I encountered something strange. I had a strange dream..."
Hao Ren briefly recounted the nightmare from two days ago, in which an illusion had eroded reality. Raven 12345 was unusually quiet this time. Only after Hao Ren finished did a suspicious slurping sound come from her end. "Oh... slurp... you had a strange dream? Slurp... Then things may indeed be a little complicated... Slurp. Come over for a moment. Slurp..."
Hao Ren felt that her voice sounded strange and couldn't help asking, "What are you doing over there?"
"Eating instant noodles," Raven continued slurping. "I forgot to eat breakfast this morning and only just remembered."
So she'd been quietly listening to Hao Ren while eating noodles! And apparently, she usually ate instant noodles too?
Hao Ren cleaned up the cold sweat covering his forehead and confirmed that Raven 12345 was still waiting for him at the usual place. He changed clothes and prepared to leave. Vivian was getting snacks ready for Roll. When she looked up and saw what Hao Ren was doing, she casually asked, "Going out? To her place?"
Hao Ren nodded, then suddenly remembered something he needed to arrange. "Right, I might not be back at noon. If Lily comes home, you two can eat out, or order delivery. The phone number's written on the calendar. That's the only restaurant that can deliver food here."
The moment Vivian heard the name "Lily," she immediately snorted unhappily. But before she could speak, Hao Ren cut her off. "No complaining. Lily is actually paying for your meals. You're already this poor, so stop being fussy."
Vivian was left speechless. Hao Ren had already completely figured out her personality, so he no longer spoke to her with the same caution, restraint, and nervousness as he had at the beginning. He had no idea how this Vampire, whose terrifyingly long history stretched back to the era when humans lived in caves and who had even fought Achilles, had developed such a good temper.
After finishing his arrangements for the household and reminding Vivian not to forget to feed the cat at noon, Hao Ren left home. He took a bus to that godlike workplace: the Time-Space Administration Bureau's Wangba Tuozi Office.
The white house hanging upside down in the sky looked just as it had a few days ago. The blue servants inside kept the residence clean while their master was away. Hao Ren ran all the way here from the South Suburbs under the blazing sun. The moment he teleported onto the fountain plaza in front of the house, he couldn't help sighing in comfort. Raven 12345 might not be very reliable, but she certainly possessed all sorts of strange abilities. Her mansion existed in a peculiar space where it was neither cold nor hot and the air was fresh. Hao Ren was almost tempted to stay here and refuse to leave.
"Yo, you're here?" Raven 12345's voice suddenly came from behind him. Hao Ren hurriedly turned around and saw the strange silver-haired woman slowly emerging from the botanical garden in front of the house, carrying an enormous, oddly styled cleaver over her shoulder. With grass clippings and dirt stuck to her, she looked as if she'd just finished tending her garden.
"I was pruning the ornamental trees," Raven 12345 said, lifting the roughly two-meter-long silver-white cleaver on her shoulder. She noticed that Hao Ren's attention had been drawn to it and smiled smugly. "Impressive, right? This has commemorative significance. The other Ravens don't have one—I'm the only one. All right, tell me about what happened to you. Let's talk inside."
Hao Ren gave an "Oh" and followed Raven 12345 into the mansion. It was the same office as last time, with the same furnishings. However, the jianbing guozi that had sat on the shelf behind the desk a few days ago had been replaced by an empty cup of instant noodles. Hao Ren's gaze helplessly fell on the brightly colored cup, and he began wondering whether he should continue believing Raven 12345's claimed identity. He would set aside whether she was truly a god. Was it appropriate for a grassroots official supposedly dispatched by the highest governing authority in the multiverse to eat this for every meal?
Raven noticed Hao Ren's gaze and shrugged indifferently. "I finished it. It's really gone. They don't provide meals here."
Hao Ren: "..."
With a sigh, Hao Ren sat down opposite Raven 12345. He then solemnly took a small chewing-gum box from his pocket and pulled out the tuft of black wolf fur inside. "This is what I told you about. After waking up from that nightmare, I found this in my hand. Lily sniffed it and confirmed that its scent really didn't seem to come from any human city."
Raven 12345 took the tuft of wolf fur and snapped her fingers lightly. Countless glittering blue-white lines suddenly appeared in midair. They joined together at a dazzling speed, forming a three-dimensional array. The black fur floated among the lines, slowly evaporating into wisps of pale-gray mist.
Hao Ren stared at the miraculous sight in astonishment. So Raven 12345 isn't only good at spouting nonsense. Whatever else she may be, this trick is definitely better than Vivian's unreliable Blood Magic. Just look at how straight the lines she drew in the air are...
"Did it seep out from that world...?" Raven 12345 murmured to herself as she watched the tuft of wolf fur slowly "evaporate" until only a little residue remained.
Hao Ren was startled. "Seep out from where?"
"The Dream Plane. But it doesn't have much to do with you—not yet, at least. At your level, you can't deal with this kind of problem." Raven 12345 shook her head, and for once, her expression turned serious. "I'll report this situation to Shadow City headquarters. This world is a famously troublesome region. Those people at the Bureau have been waiting for new information for many years."
Seeing the confusion on Hao Ren's face, Raven casually pulled out a small hexagonal silver-white object and tossed it over. "One look at you and I can tell you lack basic knowledge. Here, take this. It's a Personal Data Terminal, the version specially made for inspectors. I just applied for it for you. You can look up all sorts of things on it, including employee conduct regulations, the schedules and route maps for the time-space nodes, and your assigned permissions... Hmm, you're still in your probationary period, so you won't be able to use most of it yet. But getting familiar with it ahead of time will still do you some good."
Hao Ren only saw a streak of silver hurtling toward his face. Fortunately, he reacted in time and barely caught it. Then he heard Raven 12345's explanation, and his entire body immediately grew excited. I finally got my work benefits!
Before you continue