Chapter 27

Holding the phone that was ringing loudly, Hao Ren felt very excited. His heart was trembling, his thoughts were trembling, and he even felt his hands were trembling — the vibration of the Nokia was indeed extraordinary. Hao Ren believed that if he threw his old phone on the ground in vibration mode, it could at least run at twenty miles per hour...

Of course, a normal call wouldn't be like this. Only when Raven 12345 called did it seem that the quirky guy used some special power, making the phone create a noise almost as loud as a tractor, ensuring Hao Ren wouldn't miss her call — Lily on the other side of the street should have heard the sound.

"Hello?" Hao Ren answered the call, cautiously saying "hello," afraid that Raven 12345 might come up with another way to scare him.

"Hey, Hao Ren, still alive? Taking good care of your new guest, right?" Raven 12345's casual voice came through the receiver, still as energetic as a few days ago. "Oh, I made a mistake in my investigation last time. You don't just have a werewolf at home; there should also be a vampire... Is she there? Doing well? No unusual situations in the past two days? I was on a business trip recently, let me tell you about the scenery in the Blue Horn Star System..."

Hao Ren was almost overwhelmed by Raven 12345's rapid-fire chatter but managed to interrupt the somewhat neurotic woman in time: "Wait, wait! I need to talk to you about something!"

"Something? What is it?" Raven 12345 was puzzled. "Salary? Then wait, I haven't decided how to pay you yet. Oh, you mean this month's benefits? It's not the end of the month yet..."

"Can you let me speak first!" Hao Ren finally couldn't hold back and shouted, but as soon as he yelled, he quickly pulled back, thinking it was bad — the "goddess" clearly had an abnormal personality, and if he dared to yell at her, he might get struck by lightning in a few seconds.

But after Hao Ren waited for a few seconds with his neck pulled back, there was no thunder outside. Raven was silent for a few seconds before speaking sheepishly: "Oh, go ahead, go ahead, I'm a bit excited after coming back from my trip, hehehehe..."

Hao Ren wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, surprised that the other party was so easy to talk to. He then organized his thoughts: "It's like this, you left in a hurry, and I have a lot of things I don't understand. And a few days ago, I encountered something strange. I had a strange dream..."

Hao Ren then roughly recounted the nightmare where the fantasy had eroded reality. Raven was unusually quiet this time, and after Hao Ren finished speaking, there came a suspicious slurping sound from her end: "Oh... slurp... you had a strange dream? Slurp... the situation might indeed be a bit complicated... slurp, come over here in a bit, slurp..."

Hao Ren felt that the voice on the other end was a bit strange and couldn't help but ask, "What are you doing there?"

"Eating instant noodles," Raven continued slurping. "I forgot to eat breakfast this morning, just remembered."

Turns out, while Hao Ren was talking, she was making noodles! And it turns out she usually eats instant noodles?

Hao Ren wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, confirmed that Raven 12345 was still waiting for him at the old place, and then got dressed to go out. Viviyan was preparing snacks for "Roll," and when she saw Hao Ren's movements, she asked casually, "Going out? To her place?"

Hao Ren nodded and suddenly remembered something to say: "Right, I might not be back for lunch. If Lily comes home, you can go out to eat or order takeout. The phone number is written on the calendar; it's the only restaurant that delivers to this place."

When Viviyan heard "Lily," she immediately wrinkled her nose in displeasure, but before she could speak, Hao Ren cut her off: "Don't argue, your food expenses are actually paid by Lily. You're so poor, don't be picky."

Viviyan was speechless. This vampire, who had been around since the human cave-dwelling era and had fought with Achilles, somehow had such a good temper. Hao Ren had completely figured out Viviyan's character, so now he spoke to her without the initial cautiousness and nervousness.

After taking care of the household matters and instructing Viviyan not to forget to feed the cat at noon, Hao Ren left home and took the bus to the divine workplace: the Time Management Bureau's Wangbatuozi Branch.

The white mansion hanging in the sky was the same as it was a few days ago. The blue servants maintained the cleanliness of the residence while the owner was away. Hao Ren ran from the southern suburbs under the scorching sun and couldn't help but sigh in relief when he was teleported to the fountain square in front of the mansion: although Raven 12345 was unreliable, she indeed had strange abilities. The entire mansion was in a peculiar space, neither cold nor hot, with fresh air. Hao Ren almost wanted to stay here forever.

"Hey, you're here?" Raven 12345's voice suddenly came from behind. Hao Ren quickly turned his head and saw the strange silver-haired woman slowly walking out of the botanical garden in front of the mansion, carrying a large and oddly shaped machete. The grass and dirt on her clothes suggested she had just finished tending to her garden.

"I was trimming the landscape trees," Raven 12345 lifted the two-meter-long silver machete on her shoulder. Noticing Hao Ren's gaze on the machete, she smiled proudly, "Impressive, right? This is a memento — no other Raven has one, I'm the only one. Alright, let's talk about what happened. Let's go inside."

Hao Ren nodded and followed Raven 12345 into the mansion. It was the same office as before, with the same furnishings. However, the pancake on the shelf behind the desk had been replaced by an empty instant noodle cup. Hao Ren's gaze couldn't help but fall on the colorful noodle cup, wondering if he should still believe Raven 12345's claimed identity: whether she was a god or not was one thing, but for a grassroots official from the highest ruling body of the multiverse to eat this regularly, was it appropriate?

Raven noticed Hao Ren's gaze and shrugged indifferently, "I finished eating, really. There's no food here."

Hao Ren: "..."

Sighing, Hao Ren sat down opposite Raven 12345 and carefully took a small gum box from his pocket, then pulled out a clump of black wolf fur from the box: "This is what I told you about. After I woke up from that nightmare, I found this in my hand. Lily sniffed it and confirmed that the smell definitely didn't come from the human city."

Raven 12345 took the wolf fur and snapped her fingers. Instantly, countless bright blue and white lines appeared in the air, forming a three-dimensional array at a dizzying speed. The black wolf fur floated in these lines, slowly emitting a light gray mist.

Hao Ren watched this magical scene in amazement: it seemed that Raven 12345 wasn't just a liar. Even if nothing else, this skill was definitely better than Viviyan's unreliable blood magic. Look at how straight the lines were in the air...

"It seeped through from that world..." Raven 12345 watched the wolf fur slowly "evaporate" to just a bit of residue, muttering to herself.

Hao Ren was taken aback: "Seeped through from where?"

"The Dream Plane, but it's not related to you — at least not now. You're not at a level where you can handle such issues," Raven 12345 shook her head, her face unusually serious. "I'll report this situation to the Shadow City headquarters. This world is a notorious problem area, and the bureau has been waiting for new information for years."

Seeing the puzzled look on Hao Ren's face, Raven 12345 casually pulled out a hexagonal silver object and threw it to him: "You clearly lack common knowledge. Here, take this. It's a personal data terminal, the special version for inspectors. I just got it approved for you. You can look up all sorts of things on it, including the employee code of conduct, the spacetime node route schedule, and your permission allocation... Well, you're still in the probationary period, so most of it won't be useful, but it's good to get familiar with it early."

Hao Ren only saw a silver light heading for his face and barely managed to catch it in time. Hearing Raven 12345's words, he became extremely excited: this was finally some protective equipment!

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