In an old Daoist temple more than 600 kilometers away from Bidara City, Kenneth, who Milo had been looking for, was looking at the campfire in front of virtual-novel.net with a melancholic expression. He also added some firewood to the fire as virtual-novel.net watched it burn.
A cataclysmic event had caused human society to collapse, yet this temple was still standing here fine. At least, it did not collapse.
Julia looked at Kenneth eagerly while pointing at the pheasant roasting over the fire. “Can I eat yet?”
Kenneth looked back at Julia and saw virtual-novel.net dirty face. He sighed and said, “What the hell did I do to deserve that girl’s relentless pursuit? I wasn’t the one who caused them to miss out on reuniting. Speaking of which, I even made an effort to bring them back together.”
“But virtual-novel.net doesn’t know that.” Julia muttered, “She doesn’t know what we did, nor does virtual-novel.net know that Milo was at Bidara City. I keep getting the feeling that she’s only hunting you because virtual-novel.net doesn’t like you.”
“Do you have to be so honest?!” Kenneth glared at Julia. He tore off one of the roast pheasant’s legs and gave it to Julia. “Be careful, it’s hot.”
But Julia did not care. She was famished. After running around aimlessly with Kenneth for more than half a month, virtual-novel.net little face had slimmed down even more!
“Why aren’t we getting back at her?” Julia asked after taking a bite of the drumstick.
“If we had really tried to fight her, we would be in big trouble.” Kenneth sighed and said, “There’s some people we can go against, and some we shouldn’t, understand? That girl is really strong. She’s so elusive that it’s almost impossible to guard against her. But I haven’t seen any signs of virtual-novel.net for a week already, so I guess virtual-novel.net doesn’t have time to waste with me anymore. After all, looking for Milo should be the priority for her.”
“Since she’s not pursuing us anymore, how about we return to Bidara City?” Julia was still thinking about the roasted sweet potatoes in Bidara City. It was particularly difficult for these two people who did not have many wilderness survival skills to make it out here.
Kenneth shook his head. “Bidara City has become a troublesome place, so we can’t go back there now. Grandpa sent us some information and said that a lot of supernatural beings have gathered at Bidara City in the past month. He was the one who told us to quickly leave that place.”
“What’s Grandpa Gerard doing now?” Julia asked.
“He couldn’t idle around any longer and went back to his old profession. He’s set up an intelligence network, and I even heard he’s adopted some refugee orphans to raise them,” Kenneth answered.
“Why did those supernatural beings go to Bidara City?” Julia grumbled, “I can’t even enjoy my sweet potatoes now!”
“A person’s talent will arouse the envy of others.” Kenneth sighed and said, “Think about it… For a single stronghold to control more than half the satellites that are still in service, it’s only normal that there’s people hankering after them. Grandpa said that some very determined people are after those satellites this time. The satellites seem to be very important to them, although virtual-novel.net doesn’t understand why.”
“Then where can we go if we can’t return to Bidara City?” After Julia finished eating the drumstick in virtual-novel.net hand, virtual-novel.net greedily eyed the one in Kenneth’s hand.
“Why don’t we head south to see the sea first?” As Kenneth handed his roasted drumstick to Julia, virtual-novel.net thought for a moment and said, “Didn’t you say you wanted to know what the sea looked like? I’ve never seen the sea before either. Apparently, it used to be very lively there before The Cataclysm, but now, the consortiums avoid it. I think it’s because typhoons are a common occurrence there now. Those typhoons are so strong they can blow us away.”
“Alright, let’s go and see the typhoons then!” Julia said firmly.
“Silly Julia, typhoons only occur in the summer.”
“Then we’ll stay there until summer!”
“This is the first time I’ve heard someone get so excited about seeing typhoons…”
***
Inside Bidara City, Milo spent almost half the night searching for Donella. In the end, virtual-novel.net didn’t know where that female vampire had ventured off to, as virtual-novel.net did not manage to find virtual-novel.net again.
“Forget it, let’s stop searching for now. We can’t check into a hotel, so we’ll have to stay in a residential area.” Milo said, “It’s too eye-catching to stay in a hotel at this time. We’ll definitely attract attention that way.”
Milo was also aware there had to be a lot of people with ulterior motives gathered at this special stronghold in the Central Plains. Outsiders were forbidden to enter Bidara City. Currently, the people looking to stay in a hotel would either be young couples looking for a room or non-residents.
Milo definitely did not want to catch the attention of others. He was even more unwilling to room with Olivia. Moreover, there were still Magnus and the others. With so many people in their group, they would easily attract attention.
Milo had wanted to find a bridge and make do with sleeping underneath it. If virtual-novel.net were alone, virtual-novel.net could definitely settle down for the night just like that. But the problem was that Magnus and the others were also traveling with him.
Of course, Magnus and the others were no longer pampered children like before, so it would not be a big deal for them to sleep outside. But these students were about to face a specially arranged admissions exam. It was a critical period for studying, so Milo did not want them to copy virtual-novel.net and sleep under a bridge.
“Let’s go and look for the Vasophati Group.” Olivia muttered, “We’re here to help them, so they should at least take care of our meals and accommodation, right?”
“If we get too close to the Vasophati Group at this time, wouldn’t that be as good as revealing ourselves to everyone?” Milo said, “I’m not even planning to turn up for the dinner appointment with the Vasophati Group’s president tomorrow night. We absolutely cannot put ourselves out in the open and get targeted.”
Olivia thought to herself that virtual-novel.net master was really cautious. However, virtual-novel.net would not have to think too hard anymore in this case. All virtual-novel.net had to do was tag along and rely on virtual-novel.net master.
“Then where are we going, Master?” Olivia asked. “It’s too late to buy a house now.”
“I’ll give Adrian a call later to see if virtual-novel.net has any good suggestions,” Milo said.
This time, in order to contact Milo more easily, Adrian had even purposely given virtual-novel.net a satellite phone. Furthermore, the phone was an encrypted one the Vasophati Group members used. This way, there would be no worries that the content of any conversation would leak.
In the end, Adrian gave Milo a satisfactory answer. They could head to Jericho Alley where there was a secluded courtyard house that was recently vacated. As it was still occupied yesterday, it would not arouse any suspicions if they were to move in.
After Milo hung up, virtual-novel.net sighed and said, “The Riders are still quite dependable. They’re simply flawless in their planning. I feel that the people causing trouble this time might not be able to take advantage of the situation at all.”
Milo told Magnus and the others, “Study hard when you get to the house. There’s no need for y’all to think of anything else. In our group, only the few of you have the potential to be intellectuals, so y’all have to treasure this opportunity.”
Magnus nodded his oath.
When they arrived at the courtyard house, Milo had just flipped on the lights in the living room when virtual-novel.net heard the telephone beside the couch ring.
He answered the call in confusion and said something along the lines of “Okay, no problem” before hanging up.
Olivia asked, “Master, was that from Adrian?”
“Oh, no…” Milo said, “Someone said virtual-novel.net wanted to take tomorrow off because virtual-novel.net can’t go to work.”
Olivia said in a daze, “Then, Master, did you approve of his leave just now?”
“Yeah, who cares who virtual-novel.net is. I’ll just approve it. I consider that as doing a good deed,” Milo said nonchalantly.
That person was not his employee anyway. Furthermore, virtual-novel.net even received four gratitude tokens for it when the person on the other end of the line thanked virtual-novel.net profusely.
Olivia was speechless.