Lu Yingheng did not linger at the construction site. As Phaethon's assistant, he had yet to become fully acquainted with the people at Belobog Heavy Industries.
It would not have been appropriate for him to stay for the argument that followed. Otherwise, both sides would have felt uncomfortable.
He had the script in hand anyway. All he had to do was step in and save the day later.
The next day, Belle got out of bed, still groggy, and entered the little room to find Wise sitting on the sofa. "Brother?"
Wise looked up at her. "Belle, you're awake? Hurry up and wash up. We have an additional task today."
Belle brushed her teeth in a daze, but her eyes kept darting outside.
Unexpectedly, Lu Yingheng was nowhere to be seen.
"Are you looking for Yingheng? I think he went out for coffee."
Wise smiled faintly, immediately guessing what his little sister was doing.
"Brother! What are you talking about?"
Belle spat out all the foam in her mouth. "I wasn't looking for him. By the way, Brother, what did you mean by an additional commission?"
Wise merely smiled at his sister's clumsy change of subject.
"Grace sent a message yesterday. Before those three missing machines entered the Hollow, they all received a message from another machine. The people at Belobog Heavy Industries call it the prototype."
"And that prototype seems to have been Belobog Heavy Industries' property before the Old Capital fell. Koleda and the others have decided to formally begin searching for it, so they need your help."
Belle sat down in front of the Hollow Deep Dive System, looking utterly done with life. "There's an additional commission?"
Wise was a little helpless too. "Koleda said the prototype carries important company technology, so they absolutely can't just leave it there."
"But Koleda's tone seemed a little off in her message. Did Yingheng make her angry when he went to retrieve the Bangboo yesterday?"
Belle connected to Eous. "Brother, how about we just ask Brother Heng to go in with Eous from now on? That way, safety would be guaranteed too."
Wise thought it over. "All right. I'll ask Yingheng what he thinks when he gets back."
[666, Lord Dragon Emperor is about to get recruited by the protagonist...]
[From now on, they can strut around all of New Eridu.]
Lu Yingheng walked through the construction site carrying Eous. "Belle, how about I hand you over to the Belobog Heavy Industries crew and leave? I want to go buy some ice pops."
"Do whatever you want. The Belobog Heavy Industries crew will be there anyway, so there shouldn't be any danger."
"Brother! Proxy! Over here!" Anton called, waving his hand without a care.
"Anton, you can just call me Mr. Assistant."
Lu Yingheng set Eous on the ground. "Time to get to work, Belle. Well then, good luck."
With that, Lu Yingheng vanished from the spot in an instant.
Ben was already used to it. "Proxy, does Mr. Assistant have something urgent to attend to again?"
Belle seemed to sigh on the other end. "He said he was going to eat an ice pop, and he'd come running if we ran into danger."
Anton declared confidently, "With me here, we definitely won't run into any danger!"
Belle: Hey, don't raise a flag!
Grace looked seriously at Eous. "As I said in my message yesterday, I gave them a thorough examination and found no faults in their logic cores or signs of Ether corruption."
"They changed because they received a signal from the prototype, and afterward, their logic cores' processing capabilities improved."
"We don't know why the prototype sent the signal, but it's very likely it wanted the other intelligent machines to come to its side."
"So our task today is to find the prototype in the Hollow?" Belle asked seriously.
Koleda kept her head down. "That's right. We'll leave the Hollow work to you, Proxy."
[Koleda doesn't look very happy...]
[Anyone would feel the same. No one could accept something like that, their own father running off with the money and all.]
"Hello, hello? Can you hear me? Belle, everyone from Belobog Heavy Industries, you've entered the Hollow. You're currently at the boundary between New Eridu and the Old Capital."
Wise's calm voice came through.
"No organization or individual is allowed to enter this area now, so be careful."
"I never thought we'd actually come back here one day."
Anton looked at the familiar ruins of the buildings around them and sighed from the bottom of his heart.
"Have you been here before?"
Koleda was somewhat puzzled.
"This used to be a highly sought-after new development district, after all," Ben explained. "The government and TOPS were pouring enormous amounts of money into building it at the time, and our company was contracted to build a major project here too."
Belle's expression froze. "TOPS?"
Hearing the surprise in her voice, Anton asked, "What's wrong?"
Belle forced down her surprise. "Nothing."
TOPS? Wasn't that the financial group the mayor said had plotted to kill Brother Heng?
It seemed there really might be more to the case of Belobog Heavy Industries' former president running off with the money...
[Holy crap, holy crap! It's that damned TOPS!]
[Wasn't that the name of the evil financial group that plotted to kill Lord Dragon Emperor before? How are they involved in Koleda's storyline too?]
[Assessment complete: definitely villains.]
Xia Linxi began her calm analysis. "From the earlier story, we know that TOPS is a force similar to a villainous faction.
"TOPS is involved in the current storyline too, which means Khors Belobog was very likely framed by TOPS."
[Come on, streamer, tell us something we don't know.]
Lu Yingheng was in a small alley in Lumina Square, eating an ice pop. "How are the preparations I asked you to make coming along?"
A figure in the shadows spoke respectfully. "Lord Dragon Emperor..."
"Don't call me that anymore. From now on, call me Boss. Otherwise, if my identity is exposed, it'll affect my plans."
"Yes, Boss. I've done everything you asked. Now I'm just waiting for the time to come, and I'll take care of it immediately."
"Mm. By the way, Vivian should have sent you to find me, right? There's no need to tell her anything about me. When it's time for her to appear, she'll appear as planned."
"Yes, Boss. I only obey your orders. No one else's orders will ever take priority over yours."
Lu Yingheng tossed the ice pop stick into a trash can. "That was pretty tasty. Oh well, I'll go buy a few more packs. You can leave first. Take care of what I assigned you."
Lu Yingheng put his mask back on and walked out of the alley. "It's almost time for me to make my entrance... I wonder how many Emotion Points I can harvest this time."