The next day, at Afterlife.
Jiang Yu stood at the entrance of the bar dressed as a waiter, enthusiastically greeting passing citizens.
The dazzling lights at the entrance cast a colorful glow over him.
Paired with his remarkably handsome face, he exuded the overwhelming vibe of a street-side male host.
Twenty thousand Dennies a day.
Damn!
So sweet!
Suddenly, a second-hand SUV drove past the bar.
Jiang Yu panicked, quickly turning his back and muttering under his breath, “You didn’t see me, you didn’t see me…” Inside the car, Nicole rubbed her temples with one hand while steering with the other, complaining about another month of operating in the red.
Billy sat in the back seat, sighing repeatedly as he mourned the bonus that had vanished before he ever got to see it.
In the passenger seat, Anby was looking out at the shops and pedestrians.
Just as she was about to look away, she caught sight of a somewhat familiar figure standing outside Afterlife.
Sensing a gaze falling on him, Jiang Yu shrank his neck and pretended he wasn’t himself.
Hearing the engine fade into the distance, Jiang Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
*Anby couldn’t have recognized me, right?
No way!
With how dim-witted and slow she usually looks, there’s no way she recognized me!* — Inside the Random Play garage.
The Cunning Hares crew and the Phaethon siblings were discussing their upcoming plan to enter the Hollow.
With everything ready, Zhe rested his chin on his hand and mused, “Did we forget something?
The Dullahan inside Crate Hollow is ridiculously strong.
For safety’s sake, should we recruit some outside help?” Speaking of outside help, Anby suddenly remembered the figure standing at the bar’s entrance.
A powerful Agent working at a place like that…
He must be facing some financial difficulties.
Should she lend him a hand?
“Nicole, if we need strong reinforcements on short notice, I think Jiang Yu is our best choice,” Anby said.
“Jiang Yu?
The handsome guy who came out of the Hollow with you?” Anby nodded earnestly.
“Mhm.
Yes.
Him.” At the mention of Jiang Yu, Billy immediately grew excited.
“Right, Boss Nicole!
How can we go raid the safe without Jiang Yu?
He’s super strong!” “If that Dullahan really is that terrifyingly strong, recruiting a powerful helper is definitely necessary for our safety.” Recalling the strikingly handsome, tall young man she had seen through Eos’s vision, Ling blurted out the thought as it struck her.
Nicole pondered for a moment, her face showing hesitation.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to hire outside help, but Cunning Hares was truly broke.
This month’s rent and utilities depended entirely on that safe inside the Hollow.
For once, Anby caught on to why Nicole was struggling.
“Don’t worry, Nicole.
That guy still owes me a debt.” Seeing that Anby had actually learned to figure out ways to make money, Nicole showed a look of deep relief.
“How many Dennies does he owe you?” “Twenty thousand.” Nicole: …
— At Afterlife.
“Ma’am, please respect yourself!
I sell labor, not my body!” “Ma’am, if you keep this up, don’t blame me for being rude!” Suddenly, the door to a VIP room was slammed open, and a disheveled Jiang Yu fled out in panic.
His hair was a mess, his shirt collar torn open, and there were two pink lipstick prints on his neck.
Glancing back at the wealthy female patron he had pushed onto the sofa, she was lifting her bangs, her glazed eyes staring at Jiang Yu like a predator looking at prey.
She even ran her pink tongue over her sexy lips with a look that said she had him right where she wanted him.
Jiang Yu straightened his collar and slammed the door shut with a loud bang.
Damn it, earning twenty thousand Dennies a day isn’t easy at all.
I almost got eaten alive by a rich mommy.
Just then, his phone vibrated in his pocket.
Thinking it was a debt collector, he pulled it out, only to find it was Billy calling.
When he pressed answer, the familiar chunibyo voice blasted from the speaker.
“Hey, hey, hey!
Jiang Yu, my man!
We’re about to enter the Hollow to handle a super dangerous commission!
It’s that Ethereal that beat us black and blue last time.
What do you say?
Want to go get some payback together?” Re-entering Crate Hollow?
Perfect.
The cooldown on his [Brave Bull] affix had passed, and he needed to retrieve that cursed blade as soon as possible.
Having a red-affix weapon floating around out there left him feeling like he had a thorn stuck in his heart—it was deeply uncomfortable.
If that blade fell into the hands of an even stronger Ethereal, he would be completely screwed.
“Sure, sounds good.
As my Agent fee, wipe out the twenty thousand Dennies I owe Anby.” It was twenty thousand Dennies either way, but now he felt more than ever that Anby was a total scammer.
He had to work his butt off and sell his looks just to barely make twenty thousand a day, while she just opened her mouth and charged twenty thousand Dennies for a bottle of water and a pack of biscuits.
The other end went silent for two seconds, likely passing the phone to Anby.
Sure enough, Anby’s serious voice came through.
“Deal.
But you have to complete the commission objective with us.” “No problem.
Where do we meet?” “I’ll send you the location in a bit.” After hanging up, Billy sent over a location message: “Sixth Street, Random Play.” Putting away his phone, Jiang Yu found the bar manager, claiming he had almost been assaulted and was traumatized, so he needed to go home and rest for the day.
The manager was a charming young woman.
Seeing him act like a delicate flower that had been mistreated, she chuckled and agreed, even paying him fifty thousand Dennies as compensation for mental distress.
Jiang Yu hailed a taxi outside and quickly arrived at neighboring Sixth Street.
Pushing open the garage’s iron door, Phaethon and the Cunning Hares crew had already been waiting for a while.
After a brief breakdown of the commission objective: In short, enter Crate Hollow, defeat the high-grade Ethereal Dullahan, and retrieve the safe.
Jiang Yu raised no objections.
He then stepped into the spatial fissure alongside the Cunning Hares trio.
En route to the target location, Phaethon’s HDD system encountered a hack from a rogue hacker, who demanded that Phaethon hand over the safe’s passcode.
Upon learning that Nicole’s group would rather get lost in the Hollow than sell them out, the Phaethon siblings directly sacrificed a high-level account to lure the rogue hacker into a trap.
The operation resumed, and finally, a familiar safe entered everyone’s line of sight.
Ling, controlling Eos, trotted forward and exclaimed joyfully, “Found it!” Billy danced around in excitement.
“What luck!” Standing beside Anby, Jiang Yu’s eyes swept across the surroundings continuously.
*Isn’t something missing?
Where’s my big sword?* “That’s my safe!” Nicole finally saw the long-lost safe and was about to charge over to grab it.
Right at that moment, Jiang Yu suddenly felt a chill down his spine.
Instinctively, he tried to pull Anby away, but Anby was faster than him.
In a flash, Anby had already drawn her blade and clashed with the suddenly attacking Dullahan.
However, the power of the cursed blade in the Dullahan’s hands was far too formidable, sending Anby flying backward.
Since Jiang Yu was right behind her, the immense force sent Anby crashing directly into him.
Jiang Yu was about to raise his gun and shoot, but Anby had already slammed into his chest.
Any chance to counterattack was lost.
The two of them tumbled together like stacked dolls, crashing into a pile of construction debris and kicking up a cloud of dust.
“Anby!” “Bro!” Nicole and Billy quickly stepped in front of the Dullahan, shielding Anby and Jiang Yu.
Having sent two small fry flying with a single slash, the Dullahan strode toward the safe.
The long blade in its hand was wrapped in eerie dark-red flames, which condensed over the entire length into an extraordinarily long blade.
No, those weren’t flames—that was Ether energy condensed to a solid state!
Looking closely at the Dullahan’s form, its entire body emanated an eerie red glow.
It seemed to have transcended the status of an elite Ethereal, evolving into something even more ferocious.
Jiang Yu felt another surge of dread.
*This guy really is feeding off the cursed blade’s stats and continually growing stronger!* Nicole felt relieved when she saw that Anby had used a human cushion to break her fall and was unharmed.
Looking at the safe at the Dullahan’s feet, Nicole grew furious.
She pulled out her massive weapon and pointed it at the creature.
“That’s my safe!”