"Did anyone analyze those blank messages? Could Rain have been trying to tell us something?" Fang Wen made the only reasonable guess.
It was entirely possible. After all, Rain was a master who played with information for a living.
"Fairy, can you analyze those blank messages?" Zhe said in a low voice.
A female electronic voice suddenly appeared without any warning.
Even though Fang Wen had already heard the siblings talk about this before, his eyelids still twitched when he heard it in person.
If Fairy were human, he wouldn't have been able to infer a single thing about her from the voice alone.
He couldn't even tell where the sound was coming from.
That was what made it so unsettling.
"Understood, Master."
"Analysis shows these messages do not contain any additional data."
"However, the transmission address itself was not encrypted. After parsing, the coordinates point to somewhere near a building in New Eridu known as Ballet Twins Tower."
What fast analysis!
But now was not the time to dig into Fairy's origins or secrets.
Fang Wen licked at his dry lips and forced his surging curiosity back down.
Then he looked up and saw Nicole's face had gone deathly pale.
Though Nicole worked as a Proxy and frequently entered harsh environments like Hollows, her skin had never really tanned much—at most it stayed a healthy wheat color.
But now she had turned completely white.
"What's wrong with that place? You look scared half to death," Belle teased.
Fang Wen burst out laughing.
"Hey! What are you laughing at?! You trying to pick a fight?!" Nicole glared at him.
Fang Wen waved a hand to show he hadn't meant it.
He just hadn't expected this seemingly fearless problem girl to have something that scared her this badly.
The white-haired girl, who had long since finished her burger and barely spoken up until now, suddenly said,
"You can't really blame Nicole. Ballet Twins Tower is the collective name for a pair of twin buildings. Lately its ghost stories have gotten extremely popular in the city. According to rumors…"
"Stop, Anby, stop, don't say anymore!" Nicole hurriedly cut her off, clearly afraid the words themselves would make her remember the fear again.
"Ahem. In any case, Ballet Twins Tower was swallowed by a Hollow a few years ago."
"You should know normal people can't transmit information in and out of a Hollow like Phaethon can."
Nicole straightened up and firmly rejected the idea.
"There's no way Rain would be in a place like that!"
"But we don't believe Fairy would be wrong," the siblings replied in unison, having spent the last month learning just how absurd Fairy really was.
Fang Wen suddenly pushed himself up out of the soft sofa.
After resting for a while, his legs were still tired, but at least they wouldn't interfere with normal movement anymore.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I have a question."
"Nicole, has Rain ever exposed her location in messages before?"
Nicole lowered her head in thought.
"…Never."
"Then what do you think it means when a hacker deliberately exposes her own location?" Fang Wen guided her step by step.
"…It means… she had no choice but to ask the outside world for help… so this is a distress signal?!" Nicole cried out.
"Exactly. Looks like you're not just big-chested and brainless after all."
"Of course not—hey! Did you just insult me?!" Nicole suddenly reacted.
"No, I didn't." Fang Wen blinked with an innocent face.
"You definitely did! You called me big-chested and brainless!"
"I complimented your chest and said you're not brainless. I don't think I said anything wrong, did I?"
"Ugh…" Nicole crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks.
This man is so annoying!!
[Nicole Affection +1, current Affection 11]
?
Fang Wen immediately put on a puzzled expression.
"Alright, Wen-ge, stop bullying Nicole. This is not the time to mess around!" Belle protested.
Fang Wen only shrugged with a smile.
He just had this irresistible urge to tease Nicole whenever he saw her.
What bad intentions could he possibly have?
"Belle's right. Nicole, if you're really worried about Rain, and we need Rain's help, then why don't we investigate Ballet Twins Tower ourselves?" Zhe's words helped Nicole calm down again.
"Oh right, then lend us Anby and the others too."
"No problem. They wouldn't have been any help in court anyway." Nicole nodded and slapped her forehead.
"Here, take this photo. It should help when you're looking for her."
Fang Wen leaned closer for a look.
The person in the photo wore a hoodie, carried a backpack, and was chewing bubble gum—altogether the picture of a pink-haired high school girl.
"So that's Rain? Really goes to show that true experts don't look the part." Fang Wen smacked his lips and gave his verdict.
The siblings also looked visibly surprised.
Nicole only rolled her eyes.
"And aren't you two the same? Who would've thought the great legendary Proxy Phaethon actually runs a video store in Sixth Street?" Nicole said, then shot another glance at Fang Wen, who had sat back down on the sofa.
"And even planted an informant inside the Public Security Bureau."
Fang Wen merely smiled and said nothing.
This girl was petty. Nice. I like that.
Put another mark in the little notebook. Tease her back next time.
Fang Wen did find himself wondering a little—had he always been this black-bellied?
Or was he only black-bellied toward certain people?
"In fact, she's one of our regular customers too," Belle added after a moment.
"So now whether for business or personal reasons, we have to make this trip."
"Oh?" Fang Wen rubbed his chin with interest.
So that meant this hacker was active somewhere around Sixth Street too?
Counting his younger brother and sister, plus the dog at the newsstand… Sixth Street was starting to look a lot less simple than it appeared.
"Anyway, I'm leaving Rain's matter to you. I need to head to the Public Security Bureau and catch an airship, so I'll be off first." Before leaving, Nicole shot one more look at Fang Wen lounging unmoved on the sofa, clearly a bit puzzled as to why he wasn't going with her to the bureau.
But Fang Wen had no intention of coming here for nothing.
He suspected that odd daily mission had something to do with this whole affair.
Ballet Twins Tower—he was going too.
And not just because of the mission.
Watching Anby carefully wiping down her broad-bladed weapon, Fang Wen felt a fierce competitive urge flare inside him.
This was a rare chance to fight side by side with true Hollow-walking "Proxies."
Though he still didn't have a weapon that really suited him, Fang Wen believed that as Zhu Yuan's right-hand man and the third-strongest fighter in the Guangying Branch, he wouldn't lose to any Proxy!
Anby also seemed to sense that heated gaze coming from beside her.
She raised her head, looked back at this police officer who seemed to enjoy teasing her boss quite a lot, and then nodded.
Lately, her boss had been bogged down by all sorts of troubles and hadn't relaxed much at all.
But after being teased by Phaethon and this police officer named Fang Wen, the boss seemed to have regained some of her energy.
Even her steps as she walked out of Random Play had been noticeably lighter.
Thinking of that, a faint smile rose to Anby's face as well.
The speed at which she polished her weapon unconsciously increased.
"Your name's Anby, right?"
"Mm."
"Can I ask… where do people usually get weapons like yours?" Fang Wen made a rough gesture, because he truly needed a proper weapon.
"The black market. Or scavenged from Hollows." Anby hesitated a little, but answered anyway.
After all, things like the black market theoretically couldn't keep operating unless the police had at least tacitly allowed it.
Though Fang Wen never paid much attention to that side of things, he still knew enough.
"And this one of yours…"
"Nicole bought it for me."
"Oh~" Fang Wen nodded slowly.
Though he hadn't done much research into Ether weapons, it was obvious this type of weapon wasn't in the same league as the anti-human weapons they used every day.
It wasn't necessarily that those standard weapons lacked raw power, but when it came to dealing with Ethereals, they definitely couldn't compare to specialized Ether weapons developed specifically for that purpose.
There was no question that the price must be outrageous.
Especially if bought on the black market. Everything there cost several times more—even bread.
In that case, Fang Wen suddenly felt he could understand a little better why Nicole haggled endlessly even over a few thousand Dennies.
As a Proxy, she should have been making pretty good money.
In fact, Fang Wen had even seen in her file that she also held the status of a senior investigator with the Hollow Investigation Association.
"Denny, huh… yeah. Without money, you can't move an inch."
Fang Wen sighed softly.
In this life, he had never really had to worry much about money, but before reincarnating, he had known all too well what life looked like without it.
You need money for some reason, and then for money, you throw away your dignity.
Maybe that was just one of the unavoidable compromises people made in life.
-------
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