Embers Ad Infinitum

Chapter 865: “Arrangements”

Jiang Baimian was most worried about encountering Professor Qin from the Last Man domain. Thus, she quickly recalled Eidolon Nun’s gaze.

After calming down, she immediately knew what the problem was: In the short period of time after being bewitched by Qiao Chu, she, Bai Chen, and Long Yuehong forgot to recall Eidolon Nun’s gaze or Master Zhuang’s dream from time to time.

In other words, if Professor Qin were really lurking in the dark, it would’ve given him an opportunity.

The problem might become rather serious.

As for whether Shang Jianyao—who had only pretended to be infatuated—had maintained sufficient vigilance and wasn’t affected by any possible influence, Jiang Baimian didn’t know. However, she suspected that the fellow had rashly dashed over because of his excessive excitement and didn’t consider anything else.

At this moment, Long Yuehong drew the United 202 from his belt, aimed at the unconscious Qiao Chu, and pulled the trigger repeatedly.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Blood-red splatters bloomed from the fired bullets in Qiao Chu’s chest as his body was mangled.

Perhaps it was because he couldn’t bear to, but Long Yuehong didn’t blow up Qiao Chu’s head directly.

Upon seeing this, Shang Jianyao shouted in surprise and pain, “Why did you kill him? If he dies, we might not be able to get back our military exoskeleton!”

“Huff, huff.” Long Yuehong panted. “I feel like his attraction lingers even while he’s unconscious. I can’t control myself any longer…”

Therefore, for Bai Chen, for himself, and for the team, he might as well go all out. He took the opportunity while Qiao Chu was unconscious to fire a few shots at him and kill him!

Qiao Chu’s body twitched a few times. He tried his best to open his eyes, but he failed.

Blood quickly spread from his chest as blood pooled around him. His body quickly stopped moving, and his breathing stopped.

The strange charm vanished.

Qiao Chu might never have imagined that he would die in such a way. The first half was absurd and comical, while the second half was aggrieved and powerless.

“At least let me ask questions.” Shang Jianyao was still nagging.

Long Yuehong turned his head and looked at him with bloodshot eyes. It was as though he was looking at an enemy who had killed his father.

In the dark-red SUV, Gitis’s male body first stopped being obsessed for a short period of time because Qiao Chu’s teeth had fallen off and his face was swollen. Otherwise, it was very likely that ‘he’ would use the Subhuti figurine to stop Long Yuehong’s subsequent murder. Then, ‘he’ would completely regain his clarity of mind following Qiao Chu’s death.

‘He’ rubbed his head and looked at Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong with coldness and hatred.

These two people had killed ‘his’ beloved! ‘He’ had to take revenge!

This realization instantly synchronized with Gitis—who had specially come to the edge of Gesterbourg.

Her expression warped as anger spewed out of her eyes. However, she quickly sensed that something was amiss.

The ‘true love’ was what the consciousness attached to that body believed in. It didn’t have a deep relationship with her true self. Furthermore, no matter how hard Gitis tried to recall or mobilize her avatar’s memories, she still couldn’t find the appearance of the ‘beloved.’ There was only the bloody scene of Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong firing.

“There’s a problem!” She immediately came to a realization and recalled that the Old Task Force had informed her about Professor Qin.

Maybe we were bewitched for too short a time, and the memories implanted are far from complete??With a thought, Gitis made the male body sitting in the dark SUV pick up the benevolent-looking Subhuti figurine.

A faint green light lit up as scenes appeared in front of the male body.

Some of them were Shang Jianyao having a ferocious glint in his eyes, Long Yuehong having bloodshot eyes, Jiang Baimian having eyes filled with vigilance and coldness while being quick to draw her gun at any moment, and Bai Chen being overly suspicious with no trust for anyone while being trigger-happy to kill them at any moment. Some were of Shang Jianyao, who appeared extremely detestable as though he was asking for a beating in Long Yuehong’s eyes…

Some of the other images came from humans in the nearby area, and some came from certain animals. They formed a complete surveillance picture without any blind spots.

At this moment, Genava—who had already alighted—quickly analyzed the most likely situation. Coupled with his teammates’ performance, he immediately followed the plan and shouted, “Don’t be rash! Think back to the past and realize that there are no such problems, nor are the current feelings you’re having genuine! This means that a portion of your memories has been tampered with or that a fake scene has been implanted in you!

“I know that you won’t believe me so easily, and proving the plan requires too much time. It’s not suitable for this dangerous situation. I only hope that you can restrain yourselves and not do certain things impulsively to prevent any future regrets. If there are any grudges, it won’t be too late to resolve them after the Eighth Research Institute.”

“That’s right, that’s right!” Shang Jianyao was the first to respond.

The rash Shang Jianyao had already been suppressed.

Bai Chen’s expression changed a few times. She glanced at the robot that she equated to ‘reliability’ in her heart and nodded indiscernibly. She then took a few steps to the side and distanced herself from Shang Jianyao and Jiang Baimian—just in case.

Long Yuehong followed closely behind her and stared at Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao warily as if he could be harmed at any moment.

Jiang Baimian sensed her surroundings in two ways as she quickly filtered her memories. Suddenly, she laughed. “He actually fabricated a memory of Little White stealing my man, Little Red having an affair, and Hey being a traitor. He doesn’t understand us at all!

“Besides, there aren’t any details; there’s only a vague understanding. Is this because there wasn’t enough time? Although we were bewitched, we woke up less than a minute later and didn’t give him any room to carry out the operations accurately?”

The Old Task Force could wake up so quickly because Shang Jianyao wasn’t bewitched from the beginning. He only wanted to run to Qiao Chu quickly and rush him for payment.

“This doesn’t seem bad…” Shang Jianyao was very interested in the role swap. He then looked around. “I don’t sense any additional human consciousness.”

In the 300-meter range he could sense, there were no other humans apart from his team and Gitis’s avatar.

Jiang Baimian tersely acknowledged his words and nodded thoughtfully. “After you knocked Qiao Chu out, that person should’ve retracted his consciousness and hidden himself.”

As she spoke, she looked around and realized that there were more hills in the ambush area chosen by the Eighth Research Institute. She didn’t feel like she could see everything.

In such an environment, it was rather difficult to find a human without giving them a chance to escape.

Jiang Baimian turned around and looked at the dark-red SUV.

The door to the SUV’s driver’s seat opened. Gitis’s male body wore a cap and held the Subhuti figurine in his hand as he gently jumped down.

Jiang Baimian didn’t mention Heavenly Eyes and directly asked, “Did you discover any suspicious figures?”

Gitis’s male body replied in a rather hoarse voice, “There are still too few active animals in this season.”

She meant that there weren’t enough informants and that there was no way to confirm the situation across the vast lands.

This indirectly answered Jiang Baimian’s question: There were no suspects!

Jiang Baimian thought for a moment before inquiring, “Are there other humans?”

As they conversed, she, Shang Jianyao, and the others constantly recalled Eidolon Nun’s gaze and Master Zhuang’s dream to prevent themselves from being affected.

“A few.” Gitis’s male body didn’t hide anything. “They are all people I know. They are locals who usually like to plant something in this area, dig rat holes, and hunt for prey.”

They were hundreds of meters away from Shang Jianyao’s perception range or even further.

Shang Jianyao thought for a moment and suddenly laughed. “I have an idea.”

“What is it?” Jiang Baimian asked cooperatively.

Shang Jianyao smiled. “Although we don’t have enough manpower, this place isn’t far from Gesterbourg. We can completely summon the White Knights to help us search this area to find the hiding rat.”

That’s not a rat but a venomous snake in hiding… Although he has failed to achieve his desired goal due to Qiao Chu’s swift, unexpected death and has no choice but to hide, we might screw up if we dare to underestimate him…?Jiang Baimian chuckled and said to Shang Jianyao, “That’s assuming you can monitor the area’s entrances and exits. Otherwise, the target will sneak away at some point in time.”

“We can split into three teams and guard different directions.” Shang Jianyao corrected his plan.

Jiang Baimian smirked and deliberately said, “In that case, we can actually save time. The range of memory control is definitely smaller than your abilities. Professor Qin has also gone deep into the Mind Corridor like you, so even if he’s stronger, he won’t be much stronger than you. Therefore, I believe he’s within 350 meters.

“This isn’t considered a large range. We can completely divide the area and exchange it for high-quality grenades. We can each guard a direction and plow the ground with firepower to ensure that there are no blind spots. I don’t believe he can resist a grenade with his body!”