The Wolf Pack

Now Luo Ruzhuo was certain.

The design on this sentinel's armband unmistakably belonged to a wolf pack team.

While devouring information about sentinels and guides on the Star Network, Luo Ruzhuo had come across teams like this. They were usually named after the leader of their wolf pack, and their rank was closely tied to their leader's rank as a sentinel. The leader's will was the will of the entire pack.

Much like the relationship between a queen bee and her workers, the members of a wolf pack shared their consciousness entities and their contamination with their leader. They even shared in a guide's purification and bonding.

When Luo Ruzhuo had read that far, the comments under the informational post on the Star Network had been full of unspeakably explicit remarks: for example, if the pack also shared the sensations when the leader and a guide bonded mentally, did that mean multi*n*p? People were very curious whether a guide would find purification exhausting, since they had to take in the contamination of so many pack members. And what happened when the pack bonded physically? Did everyone go at once or one at a time?

There had been all sorts of topics like that, leaving her astounded. Whenever these subjects came up, netizens threw themselves into the discussion with abandon. The conflict between sentinels and guides vanished, the conflict between sentinels, guides, and ordinary people was forgotten, and the whole interstellar society was thriving.

Whether it was the topics in her head or the stares in reality... Luo Ruzhuo found them hard to ignore. Their gazes made her feel like a piece of meat on a chopping board, about to be devoured by this pack of green-eyed wolves the next second.

Fortunately...

With a ding, they reached the floor the sentinels had selected.

Luo Ruzhuo glanced out. The fourth floor seemed to sell digital devices.

The sentinels filed out, and the space inside the elevator suddenly felt roomier. Even the air was fresher. Once almost everyone had left, the sentinel in front of her still showed no sign of moving.

Luo Ruzhuo frowned slightly, her fingertips curling without drawing attention. She considered how to hit the guy with a mental power attack without alerting the elevator's surveillance system.

Before she could act, he reluctantly released the hands trapping her on either side, as though letting go of a delicious, juicy piece of meat.

"Fenrir Talo, SS-rank sentinel." He then took her hand and kissed it. His manners were impeccable, a complete departure from his earlier savagery. The enormous contrast only gave Luo Ruzhuo a strong sense that something was off.

He held his armband against the optical computer on Luo Ruzhuo's wrist. With a beep, a name automatically appeared in her contacts. Fenrir Talo learned her name in the process. "The Talo Wolf Pack is willing to pledge its loyalty to you, Miss Luo."

He raised an eyebrow, a triumphant smile curving his lips. As he crossed the threshold onto the floor outside, he pointed to his wrist. "Next time you adjust your settings, remember to turn off teams' automatic friend permissions."

The elevator doors slowly closed.

Luo Ruzhuo: ...

She stood there, silently staring at the new name on her optical computer screen, at a loss for words.

Damn it, nobody told me the optical computer even had that permission!

Anna arrived late, hurrying over to sit down at their table in the restaurant. Embarrassed, she said, "Darling, sorry I'm late. Sorry for the wait!"

"It's fine," she said with a smile. "Come on, eat. All the dishes are here."

In fact, Luo Ruzhuo hadn't waited long, and she hadn't been idle in the meantime.

Following instructions from the Star Network encyclopedia step by step, she had turned off that strange team permission on her optical computer.

While sorting through her contacts, she had also accepted the new friend requests.

The one with a jar of honey as his avatar was undoubtedly the sentinel whose Mental Entity was a honey badger. He had written his name in the note: Ping Tian. There were also the Siamese cat and the lion from the same team as the black-footed cat. They seemed to be called Luo Xi and Chiya.

Luo Ruzhuo was very pleased with her memory.

After adding a whole bunch of friends, she even felt motivated to post to her Moments.

She casually snapped a picture of the roasted grub worms on the table and posted it to her Moments with a simple caption: Delicious. Love it.

Only moments after she posted it, a string of likes appeared underneath.

Damn wolf (Fenrir Talo) liked it.

Black-footed cat (Heisha Draven) liked it.

Red-crowned crane (Lin Sheng) liked it.

Siamese cat (Luo Xi) liked it.

Honey badger (Ping Tian) liked it.

Captain lion (Chiya) liked it.

Immediately afterward, a message popped up in the comments:

[Damn wolf (Fenrir Talo): You're at the Starry Sky Restaurant? Wait there, I'm coming to find you.]

Luo Ruzhuo: Oh no, I forgot to block this wolf!

But she had already posted it, and the dishes had only just been brought to the table. There was no way Luo Ruzhuo was leaving now. With delicious food in front of her, she could hold up the sky with her mental power even if it fell.

Before long, a loud greeting came from behind her.

"Miss Luo!"

Luo Ruzhuo's ears twitched, but she pretended not to hear. Anna, sitting across from her, saw who it was and gave him a polite smile and a wave. She seemed to know him. Seeing this, Luo Ruzhuo turned around too and found that the newcomer was wearing white casual clothes, somewhat similar to the modern Chinese-style clothing from her previous life, with bamboo embroidery on it.

It was Lin Sheng.

His complexion looked much better today. The dark circles and stubble on his face were long gone, and when he smiled, his eyes looked like crescent moons, sparkling with light.

When he came closer, Lin Sheng stopped and bowed slightly, giving Luo Ruzhuo and Anna a standard interstellar gentleman's greeting.

He held out the gift boxes in his hands to them, smiling as he spoke in a relaxed, sincere tone. "The captain is doing much better today, so I had time to come out and buy some supplies to take back. I happened to run into you both. Thank you for your contribution of Guide Element. I saw these when I passed the accessory shop downstairs and thought they suited you... They weren't expensive, so please accept them."

Luo Ruzhuo took hers curiously and found a hair clip inside. It was transparent, with small pointed wings on either side and two little horns on its head. It looked very much like the adult form of her Mental Entity.

Whether among sentinels or guides, there weren't many people whose Mental Entity was a sea angel, and accessories in that shape were hard to find. Luo Ruzhuo liked it very much and naturally had no intention of refusing it.

Anna's Mental Entity was a dove of peace, and her gift was a necklace with a dove holding a wreath in its beak. Judging by how she couldn't put it down, she seemed very pleased too.

He had put thought into the gifts, so Luo Ruzhuo's manner naturally grew much warmer.

But before they could exchange more than a few words with Lin Sheng, a jumble of hurried footsteps approached. "Sister Luo!" A younger, louder voice rang out from behind.

Several sentinels came into Luo Ruzhuo's view, walking over with their arms around one another's shoulders. They wore matching black uniforms, and the feline on their armbands stretched out its body. The slightly shorter, dark-skinned young man greeted her first. He beamed when he saw Luo Ruzhuo, his white teeth looking especially bright against his skin.

When Luo Ruzhuo looked over, Heisha and Chiya, who were behind him, merely nodded calmly. She didn't know the two young men walking at the very back, but they were both members of the Desert Team. She vaguely recalled noticing them on her schedule of sentinels awaiting purification. One had a snow leopard as his Mental Entity, and the other had a tiger.

Luo Xi, who had insisted not long ago that he was already a dependable adult, let go of his companions and trotted over. Calling her sister again and again, he unobtrusively squeezed Lin Sheng out of the spot where he had been standing and smoothly picked up the conversation.

"Sister Luo, do you like this place's roasted grub worms too? I've eaten them lots of times! And I know another place where they taste about the same... even better! When are you free, Sister Luo? Let's go together!"

"Ahem." Lin Sheng, who had been squeezed aside, coughed twice and seemed about to say something, but before he could speak, Heisha and the others came over. Heisha Draven hooked an arm around Luo Xi's head, which was too close to the young woman, and pulled him away. Smiling at Luo Ruzhuo, he said, "The cactus juice I sent you yesterday only keeps for three days. Could you remember to try it when you get back tonight? If you don't like it, you can drink the desert rose hydrosol arriving tomorrow."

Before Luo Ruzhuo could offer a single thought of her own, a soft chuckle came from behind her, the voice carrying a subtle note. "You're quite busy, Miss Luo."

Luo Ruzhuo turned and found that he had actually changed clothes. The black uniform with its faint traces of blood had been replaced by a grayish-white casual suit. A huge imperial-green badge was pinned to his lapel, almost identical in color to the eyes of the sentinels behind him.

Who else could it be but Fenrir Talo, with that familiar look of a wolf eyeing a piece of meat?

Luo Ruzhuo had no time to bother with this inexplicable wolf.

All she wanted now was to tilt her head back and let out a long sigh.

What a mess. There were so many sentinels, surrounding the entire table so tightly that nothing could get through.

Meeting Anna's surprised, thoughtful gaze, Luo Ruzhuo felt that no amount of explaining could clear things up.