Dimensional Hotel-Chapter 665 - 664: Huh?

The breeze blew through the valley, carrying with it the fragrance of soil and grass. The light was perfect, and a hint of roasted mushroom lingered in the grassy thickets by the riverbank. The little fish tossed into the river a long time ago had grown quite a bit, and sometimes you could see schools of fish gathering by the stone nests by the shore. When someone moved nearby, the startled fish would splash the water loudly.

Yu Sheng opened the back door of the Special Service Bureau's kitchen and snuck out with some kebabs, fruit, and a few sweet potatoes. Then he dug into the pile of campfire left by the long-haired princess, wrapped the sweet potatoes in tin foil, and buried them in the hot ashes. Next, he piled up the remaining branches nearby, lighting a small fire beside the hot ashes to slowly roast the kebabs.

He handed a skewer of roasted chicken to the golden-haired elf beside him.

Luo took it and thanked him, blew on it hard, then took a bite and immediately widened her eyes in surprise: "Boss, you got skills!"

"Do you know how much effort it took to feed Hu Li before signing the strategic cooperation agreement with the Special Service Bureau's cafeteria?" Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow, "That's just the tip of the iceberg."

Erin squatted near the fire, poking some acorns she'd just thrown into the fire with a long stick. She suddenly looked up at Luo and asked, "Aren't you an elf? Do elves eat meat?"

"There are many types of elves—Arglede elves aren't so particular," Luo glanced at the little puppet, "What we're eating is quite normal. If you have the opportunity to learn about Terran elves' dietary customs, even Hu Li might find it hard to stomach."

Erin blinked: "Hey, don't say, I completely forgot about that..."

Yu Sheng looked at Erin, then at Luo, not knowing what they were talking about, couldn't help but be curious: "What's up with the Terran elves? What about their dietary customs..."

Before he could finish speaking, Luo leisurely replied, "Boss, have you heard of raw intestine sashimi?"

Yu Sheng was completely stunned.

However, Luo continued with the second half of the sentence: "After eating stew pancake, they use raw intestine sashimi to cleanse the palate."

Yu Sheng: "…Let's discuss some earthly topics instead."

Holding onto the chicken skewer, Luo laughed. She didn't know when, but she gradually adapted to the relaxed and slightly sneaky vibe within the travel agency crew—no longer as cautious and tense as she initially was around Yu Sheng—although she was still startled by Erin suddenly popping out of nowhere.

"Regarding the plan to use Old Qiao, the 'group traitor,' as a cover to send forged Angel Catalyst into the Hidden Monastery's lair, the greatest risks are simply two-fold," Luo said slowly, "Either the cover 'Old Qiao' is exposed and the Hidden Monastery notices that the real Old Qiao has died; or the Angel Catalyst is revealed, and the Hidden Monastery has special means to identify the authenticity of the catalyst."

She casually tossed the leftover skewer into the fire, watching as the bamboo stick slowly burned, curled up, and continued to speak thoughtfully.

"Regarding the Angel Catalyst, we can only rely on the Special Service Bureau's 'processing technology' and the 'ingredients' you added, boss. As long as those two are reliable, there's a high chance the fake catalyst will fool the eyes of those Hidden Monastery followers—after all, from the existing data, they haven't fully mastered the power of the Angel Catalyst, and considering the varied nature of Dark Angels, they should also be unable to completely identify catalysts, relying on various 'traits' to indirectly determine authenticity.

"The easiest place for things to go wrong is still with the 'Old Qiao' issue... Creating a puppet is not hard, we've got plenty of Old Qiao's metal shells, and Momo and I are familiar with Old Qiao's mannerisms and behaviors, plus some adaptability, as long as it's not prolonged communication, we can still deceive the Hidden Monastery's contact—after all, their relationship likely isn't that close-knit.

"The real difficulty is we don't know if Old Qiao has any other 'codes' or 'identification methods' when communicating with the Hidden Monastery contact. I've restored some communication keys from the Deep Rock Fortress system, but this can only ensure we can contact the Hidden Monastery. What if there are other agreements between them during communication? Even just a keyword, a specific noise...

"One slip-up, and our plan gets exposed."

Hearing Luo's analysis, Yu Sheng slightly furrowed his brow. He casually lifted Erin, who was getting closer to the fire, and placed her farther away, slowly speaking: "Such things can't possibly be recorded in the system logs, but given Old Qiao's cautious nature, he would definitely have similar agreements with the other side."

Luo nodded: "After all, it's working behind the group's back, and leaking critical data from the Pioneer Laboratory to outsiders. Old Qiao obviously knows the risk if such behavior is exposed."

Erin sidled up to the fire again, poking it with a small stick, getting closer—because the stick was burning shorter and shorter.

Yu Sheng casually picked up the little puppet again and placed her to the side, picked up a longer stick nearby for her to play with.

"Would any of the 'experimental lab assistants' we saved know about this? Momo said she doesn't understand, but maybe someone else might..."

"Impossible," Luo shook her head, "Old Qiao is a madman with both insanity and rationality. He might share some inconsequential things with the laboratory slaves for relief, but when it comes to his core safety, he wouldn't reveal a single word."

Yu Sheng frowned deeply, listening and sucking his teeth: "Regardless, we have to act quickly. If we wait too long, exposure could occur before execution, and news of Old Qiao's death will spread by itself, and no one knows if the Hidden Monastery and Old Qiao have a similar 'regular contact' agreement. If the other side suddenly calls, no one at Deep Rock Fortress answering would also be a problem..."

"...Perhaps we really should have interrogated him more at the time," Luo's face showed a grimace, "but, but, I really..."

"How long do you think you'd need to interrogate him for Old Qiao to truly spill everything?" Yu Sheng lifted his eyelid, "Given his type, if he genuinely opened up before dying, that would raise more problems, and if there's any oversight, it's only that I should have used Dead Communication to interrogate his soul... though I doubt whether that guy even has a soul left."

Luo paused, looking at Yu Sheng's face for a long time as if trying to read something from it, but ultimately just sighed and whispered: "…Thanks."

Yu Sheng waved his hand: "I'm not trying to comfort you either."

At that moment, Erin finally managed to scoop the few scalding acorns out of the fire. Happily, she tossed aside the charred stick, raised her hand, and with a sharp whoosh, the Omen Wandering Star flew in from the direction of the Teleportation Hub.

Then, the little puppet, focusing on smashing the already charred acorns with the Omen Wandering Star, absentmindedly muttered, "Why do we have to follow the rules and contact the Hidden Monastery? If you don't know the code, just forget the code…"

Yu Sheng instinctively spoke, "Wouldn't that just immediately expose that Old Qiao is in trouble if we connect?"

Erin tilted her head back, her eyes bright and unthinking, "Then let Old Qiao be in trouble while making the call."

Yu Sheng was taken aback by the words, then suddenly seemed to realize something, turning his head to look at the golden-haired elf beside him.

Luo also turned his head almost simultaneously.

The two exchanged glances, as if both thinking in the same direction, and Luo was the first to speak, "Right… the initiative is actually on our side. As long as we throw out the bait of the Angel Catalyst…"

"Yes, as long as the Angel Catalyst bait is real enough," Yu Sheng followed up, "the specific state of 'Old Qiao' is whatever we want it to be, right?"

Erin kept the Omen Wandering Star in a position to smash the acorns while blinking at the two in front of her, "…huh?"

"We can come up with a 'script,'" Luo's mind raced, "make Old Qiao's emergency contact reasonable—so urgent that there's no time to care about communication security, so urgent as to lose all composure…"

Yu Sheng: "Isn't the Angel Catalyst itself a reason? This thing can lose control at any minute... if necessary, we can even add some dramatics from the Special Service Bureau!"

Erin: "Huh?"

"Erin, you're amazing!" Yu Sheng's eyes lit up, turning to pick up the little puppet and held it in mid-air, "I thought you were just messing around with the fire, but you've been helping us come up with ideas all along? Your six parallel processing units really come in handy!"

Erin: "Huh, huh?"

Yu Sheng vigorously rubbed the little puppet's head, happily placing her on the ground beside them, then stood up from beside the campfire, brushing the grass and dirt off his body, and said to Luo, "Let's do it this way, you get the communication channels and the technical aspects for disguising the trade sorted out as soon as possible in the next two days. Besides the fake 'Old Qiao,' we also need a Shuttle for trading with the Hidden Monastery, and this Shuttle also needs to be well disguised. I'll go back and work on the script, which I'm good at."

As he spoke, he brushed aside the hot ash pile, pulled out the roasted sweet potatoes, and placed them in a bowl (which he had also snagged from the Special Service Bureau's canteen), and collected a handful of freshly roasted meat skewers and fruits, turning to leave.

Luo was taken aback for a moment, "Hey? Aren't these for me?"

"They're for Hu Li; she loves roasted sweet potatoes," Yu Sheng said matter-of-factly, "the skewer earlier was mainly so you could taste the seasoning—and besides, you've already eaten a bunch of roasted mushrooms, you'd better take care of your stomach with the little original organs you have left."

"Hey—"

Luo instinctively stood up, but before she could say anything else, a skewer of roasted meat was already in her hand.

"Just kidding, these are for you."

Then her vision blurred for a moment as Yu Sheng headed out the door.

At the scene, besides herself, there was only Luna still lost in thought not far away and Erin, still looking bewildered.

Luna would soon tend to the vegetable garden, so she didn't leave with them. Erin, using a mass-produced body, also didn't leave.

Luo spaced out for a few seconds, clutching a skewer, and sat back into the grass, looking up at the sky.

Let's rest for another ten minutes; the sky is still very blue.

She smiled, leisurely gnawing on the skewer and glanced at Erin, who seemed still in a daze.

"Honestly, it's surprising to realize you understand things so well," Luo sincerely admired, "I'll admit I underestimated you usually."

Erin pondered this, proudly puffing out her chest, "Of course, I'm quite amazing!"

Then she stuffed the charred acorns she roasted into Luo's hands and curiously asked, "By the way, what did you mean by the 'code' you were talking about earlier? What's it for?"

Luo: "…huh?"