The Informal Tomb Raiding Diary: She is the occupant of the tomb!-Chapter 424 - 319: A Clash Without Technical Skill
His territory? What does that mean? Is he a local inhabitant of the Ancient City?
The Ancient City is so perilous, and he dared to claim this as his territory. My first thought was that he must be a local, the master of the Ancient City.
So I glanced at Little Red and saw it had no reaction. According to it, its setting is to be friendly to nationals, with a goal of saving lives and helping the injured, which is why it approached me and saved Doctor Du when he was drowning.
Of course, for those ’diseases’ it is powerless against, it won’t voluntarily intervene, such as mutations caused by werewolf scratches.
It can’t cure this and doesn’t plan to try, but it will snatch Doctor Du’s herbicide to save people.
I can’t figure out whether it has a ’personality’ or if it’s just a machine executing programs?
There’s no denying it has strong learning and imitation capabilities, but the difference between humans and artificial intelligence is that humans can be irrational; they can decide to make mistakes despite knowing it’s wrong.
I recalled it promised to remove the hidden danger of the rampant werewolf and couldn’t pinpoint whether it was breaking its principle of saving lives for me or if it judged that sacrificing one to protect many was the correct procedure.
Mike and Cowboy Hat were having an unpleasant conversation while I was zoning out, but I could still hear them. Mike believed Cowboy Hat illegally trespassed into the restricted area; since he broke the law, we couldn’t possibly listen to a criminal.
This place is special, and Mike has the right to deal with Cowboy Hat first without facing any consequences as it involves national secrets, and confidentiality is paramount.
Cowboy Hat relies on his strength, claiming that without him, we wouldn’t make it through the last two blocks.
What he said might not be boastful. He managed to create so much seaweed paste by himself, showing he has some skills.
Mike asked what his rules were, and Cowboy Hat said that if we wanted shelter in his territory, we had to ’work.’ I looked around the rooftop, wondering where his little workshop was, if we needed to make seaweed paste.
Ancient City seaweed paste processing plant, superior quality, unique formula, welcome to buy?
Mike insisted Cowboy Hat clarify what he wanted us to do. Cowboy Hat’s answer was vastly different from my guess; he said he needed us to be bait and lure more giant mantises.
Naturally, Mike disagreed, saying he’d rather fight mantises outside than share the rooftop with this bastard.
Chen Qinghan interjected at this point: "Can you confirm the number of mantises?"
He was naturally asking Cowboy Hat. Cowboy Hat shrugged, his expression seemingly affirming, ’Of course.’
He had already illegally trespassed into the restricted area and now appeared indifferent. Is his backing stronger than Kangaroo Country’s officials, or does he assume we can’t do anything to him?
If it’s the latter, unless he uses underhanded means on us, I examined the rooftop again, ensuring his processing point wasn’t here — perhaps it’s downstairs.
Cowboy Hat was fiddling with a dagger, which looked quite exquisite. He waved the dagger in my direction twice and asked Mike, ’Who is she?’
My heart skipped a beat. We were all here, and I hadn’t said a word. Why did he single me out instead of asking others? Did I expose something?
Mike introduced me as an agent from Huaxia’s Department of Supernatural Phenomena Investigation, and Chen Qinghan as my partner and the leader of Huaxia’s representative team.
It’s the first time I’d heard my current identity, an agent? Isn’t that a foreign term?
None of my colleagues in the group ever mentioned this term, so this ’title’ is likely Mike’s interpretation and translation of my position, not factual.
Cowboy Hat immediately accepted this title, muttering softly, "Oh, agent."
He directly ignored Chen Qinghan and the others, beckoning me, "Agent, you have a new job."
No one else was assigned tasks; he gave me the first task, how could I not be suspicious?
"Wait, first tell me what the job is," Mike asked nervously.
Chen Qinghan glanced at him, then at me, I shrugged — Mike always seemed to worry about me as if I were someone needing protection.
I felt a bit of bruised pride, but he hadn’t done anything outrageous, just somewhat redundant.
"Hey, don’t be nervous, mate. Your girlfriend?" Cowboy Hat spoke flippantly, provoking Mike’s anger. He rushed forward, attempting to grab Cowboy Hat’s collar.
Cowboy Hat deflected Mike’s arm with a backhand and punched Mike’s face with his other hand.
The two were about to start fighting, and we merely watched without intervening.
It was apparent they weren’t trying to kill each other, just competing. Neither used knives, only fists, no dirty tricks, purely clashing strength to see who was tougher.
The result was both sides suffering equally, half a dozen of one, six of another. Cowboy Hat looked about thirty, at least ten years younger than Mike; their height and build were similar. Watching them fight had no entertaining value whatsoever.
Standing aside, I pondered and reached a conclusion, saying to the nearby Chen Qinghan, "They aren’t fighting because of me, right?"
Chen Qinghan replied with an enigmatic statement, "If it’s because of you, I should have been in the ring."
"Men’s methods of probing are straightforward and crude," Doctor Du looked at the two exchanging punches with disdain.
Several minutes later, both had bruised faces, Cowboy Hat sat back in a stone chair, Mike sat at the edge of the rooftop.
Both were panting like oxen, wincing in pain, Mike’s eye corner was torn, Cowboy Hat’s eye was swollen.
Cheekbones, mouth corners, bridge of the nose; looking at them now, rather than fighting, it seemed they were giving each other cosmetic surgery.
Beaten beyond recognition, yet without truly injuring each other’s vital points — Cowboy Hat pointed at me after taking a breather: "Let her do the work."
Hey, this was interesting, what job must I do that makes him so persistent?
"What job?" I asked this time, intrigued by the new task.
"Simple, lie in the coffin." Cowboy Hat said, holding his stomach as he got up, beckoning me again.
He motioned for me to follow him, then led the way down the stairway to the top floor of the building while speaking, "I found something interesting."
Chen Qinghan and the others followed behind me, with Cowboy Hat not stopping them; the top floor space was unpartitioned. The setup matched my imagination of a shady workshop, filled with pools of unidentified liquids, unlabeled bottles and cans, and tangled tubes.
In the middle of this mess stood a stone platform with a humanoid groove on top.
Seeing this groove, I immediately understood why Cowboy Hat chose me alone — it was because the groove was... a perfect fit for me. A centimeter taller and I’d feel cramped; a centimeter shorter and it would have gaps.
Doctor Du and Little Red’s height and build didn’t match the groove.
It was like Cinderella’s glass slipper, seemingly tailored for me.
"You just need to lie here, not do anything," Cowboy Hat said.
"Then what? What’s my role?" I asked.
If he says it only works when a human lies in it, then I must refuse.
"I don’t know," Cowboy Hat replied bluntly.
"Say that again?" My hands itched slightly, and I clenched my fists.
"When I arrived, it was placed here. I’m really curious about its purpose, so... please go ahead."
"You don’t know what it’s for, so how do you know if I can do the job?"
"Hey, have a bit of a risk-taking spirit. You’ll never know unless you try."
