GRMFBS CH139

Zhan Yan mooched the meeting halfway and was forced to stop.

It was morning, and even if he didn’t do morning exercise, he still had classes this morning.

Zhan Yan, completely forgetting about settling accounts with Gu Jiancheng after staying up all night and feeling dizzy, secretly zoned out during class to continue searching for information.

They had scheduled rotating shifts. The members on shift were not limited to the two major organizations—the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and the Wan Yao Alliance—but also included some powerful and reliable big shots who hadn’t joined any organization for various reasons, such as the Blue Bird.

Scheduling these shifts was quite troublesome because they had to stagger those who didn’t get along, such as Da Wule and the Nine-Tailed Demon King, or the Traveler and the Qing Yun Demon King. These big shots with old grudges wouldn’t go so far as to sabotage official business, but if they really encountered a dangerous situation, it would probably be difficult for them to have tacit understanding when cooperating.

Zhan Yan watched helplessly as they scheduled Tianshi and the Chongming Demon King together.

Zhan Yan: …

Ah!!!

How exactly did you guys accurately step on a landmine among so many people!

One important reason why his parents’ identities hadn’t been exposed all this time was that they had never cooperated closely. The couple had been deeply in love for so many years and were extremely familiar with each other’s habits and little gestures. If they cooperated closely, wouldn’t they look increasingly familiar to each other? Once or twice would be fine, but the rotating shift would last at least three months, and at most a year! With more close cooperation possibly happening after a year, wouldn’t their identities be exposed in a matter of minutes?

Zhan Yan went crazy.

Looking again at his second little star for information protection, the energy gauge was almost full last time, but for some unknown reason, it had been completely emptied. The energy gauge refilled this time wasn’t even half full.

The good news was that Ning Xi was also worried about Ji Yueming’s physical condition, and others also felt it was relatively safe recently. The heavy weapons needed to be placed towards the back, so they scheduled Tianshi and the Chongming Demon King’s shifts for later. The two wouldn’t cooperate in the short term.

Zhan Yan decided to save up energy! Frantically save up energy! He had to grind out the second little star before his parents cooperated!

Zhan Yan worked hard to eat gossip for a whole day. In the afternoon, a message came in the family group chat.

His mom said there was a business meeting in a few months, and she would have to leave for a while.

His dad said he received an acting invitation, didn’t know exactly when closed filming would start, and would also have to leave for a while.

Zhan Yan suddenly realized a serious problem: the times his parents would be leaving next would perfectly align. Once was fine, twice was fine, but what about three or four times? Every time he filmed perfectly coincided with the time her company had business?

Neither of his parents were fools; it would be weird if they didn’t sense something was wrong!

Ahhh, what to do? Just thinking about it was despairing.

He had to find a way to change this arrangement.

However, the big shots had experienced many hardships and had abundant experience. The tiny bit of credibility Approaching Science had accumulated wasn’t enough to persuade them—one could also say that no one could make them lower their guard regarding a matter that could affect the entire world, unless a better plan appeared to replace the current one.

Zhan Yan had no clues for the moment, but he thought of a person who might be useful: the Artisan.

The Artisan originated from the doomsday world.

What Zhan Yan thought of, others thought of too.

While holding meetings, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was also frantically contacting the Artisan, yet the Artisan had never replied. She hadn’t even read the messages.

Ning Xi came out of the meeting and found the person in charge of contacting her to ask about the situation. Upon learning that the Artisan still hadn’t replied, Ning Xi’s brow furrowed tighter and tighter.

“Could it be that she just hasn’t seen them yet?” the contact person asked.

“Impossible. The Artisan came from that world and can definitely feel the gravitational tide. She is a smart person and can definitely figure out that we would contact her next. She is deliberately not looking at the messages.” Ning Xi thought of another point, “It’s also possible she’s tied up by something, rendering her unable to check her messages.”

But whether she was deliberately not looking or tied up by something unknown, at this point in time right after the gravitational tide occurred, it wasn’t a good omen.

“Go investigate.”

Whichever speculation it was, they needed to know what the Artisan was doing right now.

Inside the studio, Zhan Suiru sat cross-legged on the carpet, tinkering with the delicate mechanical structure inside the puppet butler’s chest cavity.

The puppet butler also sat obediently on the carpet, remaining motionless as Zhan Suiru tinkered, only his mouth repeating like a jammed record: “You have a new message notification. You have a new message notification. You have a new message notification…”

Zhan Suiru got a headache from his noise: “Remove the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s messages from the priority notifications.”

Puppet butler: “I suggest…”

Zhan Suiru: “Shut up, no suggestions allowed!”

The puppet butler aggrievedly shut his mouth.

New messages were still constantly being sent over, all stored within his body. From the very first moment they were sent, they were read and comprehended—comprehended. This word now held some special meaning for the puppet butler.

In the past, he could also read and comprehend these messages; it was a necessary part of assisting Zhan Suiru’s work. He could use “comprehension” to determine the type of these messages and make a preliminary classification.

The meaning of “comprehension” stopped there for him.

But now, the act of “comprehension” carried some other meanings for him.

Among the messages sent from the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau, certain words made him particularly concerned, and certain sentences were repeatedly read by him. These instincts he didn’t quite understand converged into a feeling he had only just experienced—discomfort.

It took him a while to pinpoint this feeling he had only just experienced once—because when Zhan Suiru sat opposite him chattering endlessly, this feeling became very unclear.

Zhan Suiru was currently conducting a not-so-routine inspection and repair on him. This process had been dragged out, taking a full five times longer than usual, yet it still wasn’t finished.

Zhan Suiru noticed Xiao Ran’s changes. Fearing that this process of change would cause damage, she began inspecting and adjusting, yet she also feared that new adjustments would hinder this change.

This made her increasingly hesitant with every disassembly and adjustment. And before completing this task, she didn’t want to deal with any troublesome matters. The Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau was the most troublesome of the troublesome.

Zhan Suiru didn’t even need to test them to know what attitude the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau held towards her right now. It was nothing more than wanting to obtain information from her but not daring to fully trust her, worrying that she still cared for the doomsday world and might make some bad move against this world for the sake of her own world. And then there would be endless probing, persuasion, and attempts to bring her under control.

Control freaks all suffered from paranoia.

After a while, the puppet butler thought of what to say: “I believe that your current evasion of contact with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau will only make future contact more troublesome.”

Zhan Suiru simply couldn’t bring herself to say the words “not allowed to believe.”

The puppet butler then started chattering incessantly by her ear.

Zhan Suiru endured it.

After nagging for a long time, the puppet butler suddenly interjected: “You have a new message notification.”

Zhan Suiru: “Turn off all message notifications.”

The puppet butler paused for a moment, as if a person wanted to say something but couldn’t find the right words at the moment, his mouth opening and closing twice: “This message is from Approaching Science.”

Zhan Suiru looked at him suspiciously: “You have a good impression of him?”

Xiao Ran had never been this proactive in wanting her to read a certain message—excluding task messages.

What was so special about Approaching Science? Wasn’t he just an information-type? Apart from two task transactions, they hadn’t had any other interactions.

However, dealing with Approaching Science was always easier than dealing with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau.

Zhan Suiru wiped her hands: “I’ll go check Approaching Science’s DMs. You are not allowed to nag about the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau’s messages anymore.”

The gears in the puppet butler’s pupils turned a few times, agreeing to this transaction.

Zhan Suiru opened Approaching Science’s DMs.

She was greeted by several large photos, all taken of a key ring. The style was ordinary, extremely common.

Approaching Science: [Do you recognize this item?]

Zhan Yan deduced that this key ring was related to the Artisan.

First, a section of the key ring’s item description mentioned an “aura of death, fading and decaying,” which fit the doomsday perfectly.

Second, Zhan Yan had already seen the Artisan in his dreams, but after checking his system backups, he found he hadn’t come into contact with anyone similar on the day he had the dream.

The last time he dreamed due to the Candle Dragon’s power was after interacting with Wan Yan Ghost King, and what he dreamed of was also Wan Yan Ghost King’s past.

Following this pattern, he should have only dreamed of the Artisan’s past after coming into contact with her. If it wasn’t because he had come into contact with the Artisan, could it be that this key ring itself was related to the Artisan?

But the sample size was too small; these were all just deductions.

Zhan Yan decided to use this deduction to try and get closer to the Artisan first.

He had already seen in the Gossip System that the Artisan didn’t want to deal with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau. This made him very worried. Zhan Yan had absolutely no confidence in his relationship with the Artisan. He was trying his hardest to figure out how to persuade the Artisan to help.

Zhan Suiru carefully examined all the photos.

These photos clearly captured every detail of its front, back, outer ring edge, and inner ring edge, not missing a single detail.

But this still couldn’t change the fact that it was just a very common key ring.

Approaching Science wouldn’t play a trick on her with an ordinary key ring, but what could be seen from just a picture of such a mass-produced item without any special markings?

Zhan Suiru was just about to ask further when she suddenly noticed Xiao Ran’s gaze. The gears in his pupils were turning sometimes fast, sometimes slow, like the dilating and constricting of a feline’s pupils when thinking.

“Do you recognize this thing?” Zhan Suiru asked.

“There is no record in the memory,” the puppet butler said. But his gaze still remained fixed on it.

It was normal for there to be no record in the memory. Xiao Ran’s memory was rebuilt in this world; those weren’t Yang Ran’s memories, just the memory of a puppet butler.

But he reacted to this key ring. If this key ring was an old item that drifted to this world from the doomsday world, did it mean his soul was indeed still preserved within that crack-covered supernatural core? Was he reviving?

Zhan Suiru’s fingertips trembled slightly.

Approaching Science mistakenly thought this item was related to her. In Approaching Science’s eyes, she was the Artisan. But in the doomsday, Xiao Ran was the original Artisan.

The more Zhan Suiru thought about it, the more she felt this might be the case. She hoped this was the case.

Xiao Ran couldn’t truly have a good impression of Approaching Science just because of two task interactions.

Artisan: [I cannot confirm, I need the physical object.]

Artisan: [How do we trade?]

Approaching Science didn’t want anything; he only hoped she would contact the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau and tell them the situation in the doomsday world.

Zhan Suiru: …

Why did it circle back to dealing with the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau again?!