The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 238 - 239: On the Road

I didn’t argue with this statement. Even though I’m quite disdainful of their changes, I can’t deny that they’ve become more lively and sunny, no longer the gloomy and cold image of robots.

And they no longer speak about killing and violence all the time. At least in the group these past few days, I haven’t seen them talk about wanting to kill anyone; they’re idling away their time in chats, discussing climate change or the rise in pork prices instead.

Sachima indeed has corpse-controlling powers; it’s one of her abilities that she can cast without using weapons.

But now she manipulates corpses to top up her phone credit and pick up packages. Since the corpse can’t speak, she writes a note to make it pretend to be mute.

In her case, she can’t exactly go out shopping, but luckily online shopping has developed over the years. Though ancient tombs can’t receive deliveries, she calls the deliveryman to leave the packages at a town store, and she has family pick them up.

The corpses can even fetch her fast food. She orders online and chooses the pick-up at the store option.

Amazingly, no one’s discovered her actions, mainly because she uses the Tomb Robbers’ phones, which are linked to online shopping apps and verified with real names.

Some people, for convenience, don’t set payment passwords, or they allow small purchases to go through without a password, which gives Sachima an advantage.

Inheriting things like Ant Credit Pay isn’t a joke for her, and since Tomb Robbers have a rather unique status, even those closest to them often don’t understand their living conditions. Many might not even know how many phones they have.

The Tomb Robbers I’ve met mostly have strained family relations; some have even cut ties entirely. Their families neither know nor care whether they’re alive or dead out there.

Though tombs are dark, they’re not as dark as human hearts.

Being a fool is better than being a maniac. I nodded quietly, acknowledging Chen Qinghan’s words.

From the Capital to the northernmost part, it takes two days by car. On our way, we picked up two people, whom we were told were teammates for the mission.

Chen Qinghan explained their mission procedure to me. If it’s just an investigation, two people will suffice. If something needs resolving, they’ll dispatch more people based on the severity of the incident.

The ones working with us this time were Qi Xiuyuan’s former subordinates, the few who hadn’t been controlled by her and weren’t involved in her matters.

The partners were also a man and a woman. The man looked very cool but loved to smile, showing a sharp canine tooth, which didn’t match his appearance at all.

The woman was the complete opposite; though she had a beautiful face and a cute dimple at her lips, she was dead serious, speaking and acting strictly by the book. I suspected she might be artificial intelligence, sent here as a trial.

Seeing me sizing people up, especially glancing at the back of her neck, Chen Qinghan gently coughed, prompting me to retract my gaze.

They had their own car. After a quick chat, we returned to our vehicles and continued on.

"What were you looking at just now?" Chen Qinghan asked.

"Searching for switches, charging ports, solar panels..." I answered, ticking them off my fingers while thinking.

"What?"

"I mean, that Gan Quan—don’t you think she looks like a robot? I’ve heard that nowadays AI is pretty amazing; they can perform surgeries, even drive cars. There’s this foreign TV series about a detective and his robot partner solving cases together."

"Hmm, you’re not wrong in a general sense, but you got the person wrong." Chen Qinghan replied as if tutoring a student.

"Huh? The wrong person... Are you saying Xiao Changfeng is the robot?"

Our new teammates: the woman was called Gan Quan, and the man Xiao Changfeng. According to Chen Qinghan, they’ve been partners for seven years, battling on the frontline against feudal superstitions.

Chen Qinghan gave me a cryptic smile without further explanation, suggesting I was right.

"Really? Such advanced tech? But it’s just science fiction in movies!" Getting Chen Qinghan’s tacit admission made me uneasy.

"Compared to you guys, they’re far behind." Chen Qinghan shook his head: "He’s only half an AI. Eight years ago, he suffered a head injury during a mission, and doctors said he’d never wake up. Later, the research department implanted some components in his brain."

"Wow..." Such stories I’ve only seen in movies, specifically in the human realm.

Chen Qinghan mentioned that human robotic technology greatly lags behind ours, though he didn’t realize that the grave guardians are things we unearthed from our ancestral tombs.

So, though our clan’s tech is advanced, it’s not from our era; it dates back to much earlier times.

Time on the road passes quickly with chats and phone games.

I thought Bi Shi was busy plotting her revenge plan, but she had uploaded her first ’courting death’ video instead.

In the video description, she explained that she feared some dangerous footage would be blocked or labeled as harmful content for youth, so she decided to change the death-defying content to extreme sports.

That means she wouldn’t inhale car exhausts anymore, choosing more ’healthy’ activities like bungee jumping from a hot air balloon instead.

After the balloon, she jumped off bridges, climbed towers barehanded. Bungee jumping with just a thin rope, which was almost invisible at a distance, so far shots made it look like she was courting death.

I could see she was poised either for success or to make headline news, so I hurried to like, comment, and share, giving a cultural essence ’three-in-a-row’ approval.

In the comments below, some said she was courting death, some admired her bravery.

Someone remarked she was risking life for attention. I immediately liked their comment and replied: "You’ve seen through it."

Bi Shi’s working with He Su now; she’s not short on money. Filming these videos is just to grab attention.

As for why? Only she knows.

The further north we went, the cooler the weather became. During the day, girls in the streets wore spaghetti strap dresses, but by evening, pedestrians were donning jackets as we drove into River Bay Town, our destination.

There had been a minor earthquake here a couple of days ago, only 2-point-something magnitude, and it occurred at night, causing no casualties.

So this event didn’t even make TV news—only a notice on the local newspaper.

Yet, this tiny earthquake drew us in, meaning no matter how insignificant it seems on the surface, there’s undoubtedly some hidden secret behind it. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

As we had a meeting with new colleagues, Chen Qinghan didn’t disclose the details of our mission on the road.

We settled in at a hotel in town. This small town has a population of over ten thousand residents. Most of the young and able-bodied have gone to work in big cities, so even though it was the weekend, the streets were sparsely populated.

The area used to thrive on forestry, but after the closure of logging areas, young people went to cities for schooling and stayed on for work after graduation. Hence, the town gradually declined.