Chapter 141 - 141 124 The Eve of the Storm

141: Chapter 124: The Eve of the Storm 141: Chapter 124: The Eve of the Storm “Beep beep beep.” The ringing of the phone echoes through the sky. This is not a regular telecom network, that good-for-nothing thing is useless in 1987, and the outside calls can’t get through here. This is the internal walkie-talkie of the rescue team, carried by “Little Fu”. The high-performance signal tower is a “newfangled technology across the eras” that I, Guan, applied for and partially funded myself. As he said himself, he even specially sought high-level craftsmen for the assembly, ensuring that the communication equipment within dozens of kilometers can function freely, even in a highly polluted environment. If outsiders want to use the signal network, they need to make some small modifications and adjustments to their phones. There’s no denying it, this guy has a bit of a doomsday survivalist’s streak… but after experiencing the convenience of this thing, many members of the rescue team have also applied to get one for themselves. There are too many disaster situations and secret realms that interrupt conventional communication methods. The times are progressing, some things will eventually become widespread. “Hello? Let the cat answer the phone.” From the other end of the phone came the words “Little Shuiyun, your guardian is looking for you”. It seems that they get along pretty well. “He is not my guardian meow!” As these words come through, Lu Ping’an still has time to check the surrounding environment and the pursuers that are gathering once again. The curse of a certain deity has almost been figured out. It’s like an extra radiation source. If under certain circumstances (encountering corresponding secret realms, corresponding power attributes), it will periodically erupt, releasing something similar to pheromones and causing demons within a certain range to go berserk. And if they just happen to see Lu Ping’an, those family members of the Evil Gods will directly fall into madness and unreasonably chase Lu Ping’an to the end. “….Pollution? Another source of pollution?” Lu Ping’an nodded thoughtfully, and on the other end, Meow reluctantly picked up the walkie-talkie after much hesitation. “Hey hey hey, you finally remembered me meow?” Meow’s tone is complaining and unhappy, she was supposed to be leading the team, and then in the blink of an eye, there’s no one to be seen? “Come and meet up with me, we’ll meet at the frontline.” But Lu Ping’an’s simple words were direct arrangements or even orders. “Click!” In an instant, the walkie-talkie hangs up. Unsurprisingly, Meow is angry. Lu Ping’an, suspended in mid-air, wasn’t mad either. He just quietly redialled. “Mew…” The young girl, so angry she’s speaking cat language. “Pay back the money.” Lu Ping’an was as calm as ever, he had bullied Meow not just for one or two days, or one or two times. “…..I don’t have any money meow, can you wait until school starts meow….” Meow’s voice was weak, as soon as money is mentioned, her previous anger dissipates completely. “Then meet up with me, I’ll text you the coordinates.” “Can you let me go! What’s the situation at the frontline, I’m just a little first-tier…” Meow became frantic immediately, she’s barely surviving under Little Sang’s protection. Asking her, who is already struggling to survive, to go to the frontline, isn’t this tormenting her? But as she tries to say something, tries to get Lu Ping’an to change his mind, to torment someone else. “Click!” But the response to her was Lu Ping’an hanging up the phone without hesitation. You dare to hang up on me? Watch me hang up on you right back! Dare you not come, I will force you to pay back the money when I go out. After making the call, Lu Ping’an hands the phone back to Guan Xinxian, who is carrying him in flight. Seeing the young man’s antics, Brother Guan also said with interest. “From my perspective, you really do look like her guardian.” “Heh heh, stop joking”. “Although, I do think this is a rare opportunity, but aren’t you a little too anxious? Not just for her, you yourself also don’t need to be so rushed, you’re still young, and at least our city is still pretty peaceful…” Even though he himself is only in his twenties, Old Guan speaks as if he’s an old man who’s seen it all. “Sure, maybe.” Lu Ping’an responded indifferently, a signal in conversation to “leave it at that”. Getting too deep into the conversation is not a good thing, since Lu Ping’an didn’t want to talk more, Brother Guan just laughed and didn’t ask further. But in reality, before the situation developed to this point, Lu Ping’an had long had his own ideas. “… Perhaps, this is an opportunity, it would be a pity to miss it, well, let’s play this game to the hilt.” What opportunity? The opportunity to see real high-end combat power. “Stop messing around, let’s get out earlier, you could really die if you’re not careful, once that thing actually touches you, it won’t give you a ‘redemption’ opportunity.” Previously, when Big Cat urged Lu Ping’an to leave as soon as possible, he dismissed Big Cat with just one sentence. “Oh, you plan on running? Are you sure you can escape?” Lu Ping’an reopened this old wound, making Big Cat somewhat uncomfortable. “That has nothing to do with me.” Big Cat tried to pretend to be confused. “Don’t pretend, we both know we can’t run…” Lu Ping’an, however, was quite calm, having been prepared for this. These days, the state of the entire ancient city was in fact very poor. The constant pull of the various fronts and the endless wave of supernatural incidents kept the Secret Keepers in a state of overstress. But amid this series of pressures, a more tangible sense of impending storm loomed even larger. The Sophists personified the cultists who strutted around the city, yet were never getting assassinated. This revealed the city’s vulnerability, while the arrival of church reinforcements implied that some unexploded bombs were about to be willfully detonated. “We both know, these guys wandering around the city, certainly aren’t here just to ridicule the local Secret Keepers or to try their luck with us. If I were them, I’d have more efficient methods…” Kidnapping important individuals as hostages, instigating terror attacks, attacks on key police figures for information–at least eliminating a few Secret Keepers to get classified information … the cultists didn’t do any of this. “… If they’re not using these effective methods, then it can only mean that their current unknown tactics are way better than these illegal ones, and they’re confident of blowing us off directly.” From the start, Lu Ping’an was ready to confront these “causalities”. “I won’t rely on others for everything, even if it’s sister Xia Qin telling me to leave everything to them. They may have the will to do so but largely lack the power.” Being destined to confront the bombardment of high-level powers, at least, one should know what high-level powers were, how those high-level professionals looked when they fought. “So, this is why you dragged that girl into this? She’s far from being useful.” “No, I never expected her to join our battlefield. On one hand, it’s a favor to her brother.” In some brutal meat-grinder battles, the survival rate of new soldiers in comparison to the old ones was 1 to 10, even though their baseline physical conditions were nearly identical. When facing disaster, whether it’s the ‘first time’, and whether one can take decisive and correct measures, were what most influenced survival rates. Many new soldiers, all felt ignorant during their first battle, standing on the ground watching bombs fall, survival to a large extent depended on luck. If this storm was inevitable, no one could escape it. If Meow has experience in high-level battle situations, even if she was only a bystander at first, she’d know how to escape when she “encountered a second time”, at least she wouldn’t die without a reason. Lu Ping’an didn’t lie, this was a favor to Lei Huoren. Meow doesn’t have to understand it, but when she goes back to tell her brother, that smart guy will understand. Lu Ping’an and a few Secret Keepers from Team 3 had reached a certain unspoken agreement, Lu Ping’an pretended to be “normal” in front of them, while they took care of his “post-event matters”. In a sense, Lu Ping’an and Team 3 had become a “team”, a group aiding each other and having a conspiracy of interests. They hoped for Lu Ping’an to grow and were willing to take some risks for it. Just like Xia Qin said before, in this era, you can only rely on yourself and the power you hold. They were helping Lu Ping’an and helping themselves too. Lu Ping’an understood more the rules between Secret Keepers in this cruel world: “The world is too cruel, so we need to stick together, maintain adequate distance within the team. How you treat others, is how they will treat you.” What if you don’t follow these rules? Then your reputation will suffer, and others’ attitude towards you will become subtle. This is the reason why a red warning sign holds such a deterrent. In such a brutal environment, once your reputation is damaged, it could mean losing opportunities to collaborate, which drastically lowers the survival rate. Lei Huoren is a smart man, this way, if Lu Ping’an compels Lei Huoren to owe him a favor, he’ll remember. So, if something really happens, Lei Huoren naturally has to put in more effort. Even if it’s helping himself who is no longer there, arranging for certain people’s future priority for refuge… “And the other reason?” “Do I need a reason to want her to survive?” Lu Ping’an was quite candid, this cat is pretty interesting; he still wants to have more fun with her. Thinking about how Meow must be crying right now, meowing as she readied her gear, rushing towards the battlefield with a stern look on her little face, Lu Ping’an’s mood improved further. Therefore, under such coincidental circumstances, the situation evolved to this point, and Lu Ping’an effortlessly guided things along, resulting in a total loss of control, and high-end powers clashing against each other. “Now let’s see if my tactics can pose a threat to high-end powers, Chris, do you think I could assassinate that sixth-order human? Will he react? Do I have a chance?” Lu Ping’an blurted out these heretical words, but Big Cat wasn’t surprised at all. Ssince the goal was only to test high-end powers and their response capabilities. It didn’t matter who got assassinated. Since the Divine Envoy was so dangerous, why not choose something simpler? And regarding the Secret Realm? What does this have to do with us anyway? Left alone, it will probably collapse soon. “You can try it, it would be exciting.” “Then forget it, I can only sense ill-intent from your words. Will I get hunted? Or be put on the blacklist…”