"Once it's all verified, I'll owe you a few lives. I killed your subordinates, and your woman."
After a long silence, Luo Xi stared into the campfire and spoke calmly.
Sean raised an eyebrow, then said cheerfully, "Good. Since you've come to that realization, you can just risk your life for me a few more times—or sleeping with me works too."
Luo Xi frowned. "The latter is out of the question. And I'm already starting to regret this—you don't seem to care about their lives at all."
Human lives? Was a life worth anything in Paradise City?
Besides, Sean had just transmigrated here. He didn't give a damn about the people who died; he only cared about the immediate benefits.
Of course, he couldn't say that out loud.
"Yeah, I don't care at all." Sean feigned calmness and shrugged. "Sheryl has died for me six or seven times already, though this time, he died pretty thoroughly at your hands... Heh, I have bad news and good news. Which do you want to hear first?"
Luo Xi remained silent, seemingly unwilling to play his boring word games.
Sean continued anyway, "The bad news is, I now have an old mother who's blind in one eye to take care of. She's going to cry every day until the other one goes blind too. The good news is, I have money and power, so providing for one more useless person doesn't matter."
'One more?' Luo Xi's brow relaxed slightly, but her lips pressed tighter together.
She asked softly, "That last physical-enhancement type with [Weak Flesh] plus [Rejection]... his name was Sheryl?"
"You came to capture me, but you don't even know the people around me?"
"Different standpoints make us enemies. My only target was you. Anyone who tried to stop me or kill me was an enemy. I don't regret it, but I will compensate you."
Sean smiled. "So our standpoints are aligned now?"
Luo Xi turned her head away. "After we verify things in your darkroom."
"Excellent. I like affirmative statements." Sean stood up and glanced out at the pervasive purple mist. Looking back, he asked, "Where in the Great Rift are we right now?"
He remembered this place. Back during development, a few Easter eggs had been hidden in the Great Rift map.
The only risk was that the most unique location among them was also the site of one of Sean's scripted deaths.
Luo Xi would face a massive disaster there and her potential would erupt; the resulting shockwaves would blast Sean—who was practically an ordinary human—to death.
'But I know the plot, at least, and I did a lot of the modeling for this map. The danger there can be avoided, and we can even grab the Easter egg... Of course, that's assuming this real world is just like the game, hiding treasures gifted by the unknown.'
Luo Xi replied, "I don't know the full layout, but this should be right above District 13 in the city."
'District 13?' Sean's eyes lit up. Sure enough, it was very close to where the Easter egg was hidden.
After a moment of thought, Sean drew the dagger he had scavenged earlier and started carving into the filthy, rotting wooden floor.
Luo Xi watched silently from the side. Soon, the doubt in her eyes turned to surprise.
A long while later, Sean straightened up, leaving a map carved into the floor.
Cupping his chin, he said, "Time was limited. I could only manage this rough draft."
Luo Xi's breath hitched. 'Such a detailed map, and you call it a rough draft?'
Before coming here, she had seen the Academy's map of the Great Rift. Over-extraction of resources back in the day had triggered a massive earthquake, ultimately forming the Great Rift within Paradise City.
The area was choked with toxic gas and fraught with danger. Only a few safe routes occasionally emerged, and all of them led to mining spots. Because of this, even the Academy didn't possess a detailed map of the Great Rift.
Yet the man before her had casually drawn a map even more detailed than anything the Academy produced. It even included many regions that the Academy's maps hadn't charted at all.
Didn't everyone say that the Academy acted as the brains of Paradise City, while the Gold Ghosts handled all the killing?
Sean squatted down and pointed at a section of the map. "District 13... Looking at the terrain, we're right about here. Hmm, let's go here."
He tapped the center of the map.
Luo Xi scrutinized it and said suspiciously, "This is deep inside the Great Rift, isn't it? It doesn't lead outside the city, nor does it connect to the Gold Ghosts' territory."
"Uh-huh. Something of mine is down there." Sean nodded. "And what nobody knows is that it was originally a sewer line from when the city was first built. When the collapse happened, almost all the pipes got blocked up, leaving only this one."
He smiled at Luo Xi. "It leads straight to my bedroom. This way, even if Eldest Brother hasn't woken up, we can still sneak into my room undetected. You can go verify your facts, and then we can start a more in-depth exchange~"
Just as he spoke, a sudden breeze brushed past. A few strands of Sean's hair slowly drifted to the ground.
Luo Xi, who had merely raised her arm a fraction, curled her lip in disdain. "Business is business. Give up any thought of sleeping with me."
"You're making things difficult," Sean said, blowing away the loose hair with a rueful sigh.
"You can go be hard on another guy, just don't try it on me. Fine, we'll do as you say." Luo Xi stood up and walked straight outside.
Sean shrugged and stood up as well. Just as he was about to follow her, he paused and looked back at the map.
After a brief thought, he walked back and carved a few more strokes with his dagger, then stood up with a satisfied nod and brushed the dust from his hands.
"Just in case... Hey, wait for me, you scummy woman! I'm completely useless down in this pit..."
...
A day and a night later, the ruined building welcomed guests once more.
Several people wearing Beak Masks began searching the area.
Their leader touched the ashes on the floor, ultimately casting his gaze upon the newly carved map.
Behind the eyeholes of his Beak Mask, a look of surprise flashed through his deep blue eyes.
"Copy it down," he ordered. "Then, after them!"
"The bottom of the rift is filled with toxic gas. There aren't many clean spots, so this is all there is to eat."
At the dilapidated shack where they were taking a short rest, Luo Xi returned and tossed down several brightly colored fruits.
Sean, whose physique was barely different from a normal person's, was already utterly exhausted. He suspiciously picked up a fruit and inspected it. "Is it going to be completely bitter like last time?"
Luo Xi shot him a look of disdain. "This isn't your turf. Do people scraping by in Paradise City still care about taste?"
Sean sneered. "Bullshit. You're 'kindly' sharing the fruit with me so that while I'm forcing it down, you can eat the rations yourself?"
The corners of Luo Xi's mouth ticked upward slightly before falling back down. "We're out of rations," she said calmly. "And the fruit actually tastes good this time."
Sean narrowed his eyes, keenly noticing some juice on her lips. Moreover, she had tossed the fruits over way too readily. If they were actually delicious, would this scummy woman really save any for him?
Noticing Sean's expression, Luo Xi wiped her mouth, then put on an offended, aggrieved look.
She scrunched her nose, gathered the fruits back to her side, and picked one up to eat.
The young woman unconsciously curved her eyes into smiling crescents.
'That blissful expression doesn't look faked...' Sean was tempted.
Ignoring Luo Xi's threatening glare, he snatched a fruit back, rubbed it on his shirt, and took a bite.
A surge of super-intense sourness, potent enough to make a person's eyes roll back, shot straight to the top of his skull. Sean's facial features twisted violently from the shock.
"Holy... shit..." Sean spat out the pulp, trembling. He looked up, only to see the young woman doing the exact same thing.
Luo Xi shook her bright red lips, which were practically numb from the sourness. Even though her mouth was quivering from the intense tartness, she still flashed Sean a triumphant smile.
"Blech—so sour."
Sean: "..."
'This scummy woman...'