Chapter 514: NO．97：Nothing in the Dream

NO．97：Nothing in the Dream

Setting aside mercenary work, the usual early commissions of an agency are just like those of old-time private Detectives, starting with finding lost cats and dogs.

Sometimes there are no commissions at all.

After all, for trivial matters like looking for cats or dogs, people normally wouldn't consider posting a commission with a proper organization.

Just posting a lost‑cat notice and spreading it online a bit is about all that's needed.

It's not that they don't think of asking an agency for help; it's that agencies at this stage usually aren't well known.

As for higher‑level commissions, such as finding missing elders or children, everyone's first choice is to go to the police, not an agency.

Indeed, this also has to do with local character.

Just like the police in Anmei District wouldn't be asked about this sort of thing; there, mercenaries and Detectives would be more trustworthy than the police.

But Jiemen District clearly doesn't work that way, so Lindon Agency has yet to take on a decent small commission to this day.

Only the chief, like an insurance salesman, has several times volunteered himself to get a commission.

Or it's a certain guy who's obsessed with Jia Gu La, who comes specially to give him work because of his reputation in that specific group.

These are all rather special, and the commissions themselves are ranked at B‑level or higher.

They have let a mercenary agency that's been open less than half a year accumulate a short but astonishing track record.

Anyone who sees Lindon Agency's work record would find it hard to regard it as a newly opened small agency, and wouldn't dare to assign it small commissions.

This is pretty bad…… for Aomo.

Although specializing in high‑end business is also a common path, high‑end business isn't actually that common.

What's more, the high‑end market's cake has already been divided up by a few big mercenary groups; the few remaining scoops are being fought over by A‑rank agencies, and the scale and reputation of those A‑rank agencies aren't comparable to a solo‑founded small agency.

That's really frustrating.

That path leads nowhere, so we still have to develop normally; and unlike many people, he doesn't disdain those small commissions—he even looks forward to them.

After all, this also counts as being professionally suited.

Finding pets, finding people—he's quite good at all of that.

From childhood he often helped neighbors in exchange for tokens of thanks—pastries, vegetables and meat, even being invited to birthday parties—and he'd watch over the recent situation of the other half for adults whose relationships were strained; in the end the disappointed woman almost gave him an adult kiss, letting the car go from kindergarten to the high‑speed bio‑passage.

But Aomo has always been law‑abiding since childhood, never giving the other party a chance to engage in copper‑smelting.

Little Aomo thus has no connection with kids' big cars, unless some chance arises that lets him return to childhood.

It's best not to entertain that thought—even if his responsible horse‑girl might one day whip up something similar—in fact, precisely because of that, we mustn't think about it.

In any case, setting idle chatter aside, there's now an opportunity for him to relive his childhood right before him; he must consider whether this will be a once‑in‑a‑lifetime person‑finding commission for Lindon Agency, but no matter the answer, the outcome is the same.

This is work he sought himself, so it should be carried out without hesitation.

So—

"I heard you're looking for me?"

Once soaring through the cyber world under the name Warplan, now he speeds across this sky as Jie Si Ti Si; that black‑red warplane swoops down from high altitude, and in the storm brought by its sudden stop it turns into a black‑haired man leaping down.

"Yes, Mr. Jie Si Ti Si."

Using an iron plate like an umbrella surface to block the gale, he shielded the witch and officer beside him; the youth folded the umbrella into a blade, which then turned into the wrist chain hidden in his sleeve.

This nondescript ordinary suit is clearly not what Shihuaiya promised to reimburse; it's merely a temporary substitute.

"I need your help."

"Although this is our first formal meeting, you're being too polite, aren't you?"

"Politeness is just for first impressions, but that's not the point right now."

"Also, I heard the information you previously sent me was also about the target we're looking for?"

"That's right; he's undoubtedly a meritorious hero and also our teammate."

"Then let's go—do those two need to come along?"

"Um, I…"

"Ah?"

"They don't need to go." Cutting off their replies, Aomo stepped forward, and in that step his body turned into a near‑three‑meter‑tall ferocious demon.

"Just us—or rather, just me."

"Huh?" He wasn't at all frightened by the other's ferocious appearance; first, this world is where Justice Si Ti Si awoke in Chaldea, so he must have been cultivated with sufficient tolerance.

But even so, he still felt he needed to emphasize what he knew:

"I heard it's an entire world, although it should already be collapsing now."

He felt that even if he maintained the posture of Justice Wings (the warplane's name) and sped about searching, he might still not find the other party.

Those helping with the search should ideally be as many as possible, but Aomo was adamant, even declaring boldly, "I myself."

But when he looked at the other's terrifying face, whose eyes should have been unreadable, he genuinely felt a surge of madness……

…and confidence.

Upon the tower built from stacked madness and confidence, a silver‑black uneven demon perched, looking down at the man hesitating before it.

"Just clear the way for me, Mr. Jie Si Ti Si."

"I already have an idea; I urgently need a verification."

——

"That said, this isn't much different from what Ailisuzhi said, Shihuaiya—do humans become more like each other in their nature the longer they interact?"

Gazing up at the demon who hadn't even entered the cockpit but merely grabbed the warplane's edge and was lifted straight into the sky, the witch‑beast, with both hands propped on its magic hat, sighed softly.

And the one she had just sighed at, when asked, turned his head somewhat surprisedly:

"Eh? Do you think I'm human?"

"What? You aren't?" The witch‑beast also felt doubtful, once again questioning her own knowledge of what defines humanity.

Of course! Uh, but, but when I first came to this world, many people called me a subhuman or something like that.

「It's just a title, after all. 」 Witch Beast also didn't care much about it.

Digital Beast still always has the suffix 【Beast】, and even though she looks like a young woman, she's also used to the title 【Witch Beast】.

「Indeed, but the race is still human, oh well, never mind, let's go back and talk, never mind that Aomo guy. 」.

Shi Huaiya shook her head, and the tail behind her swayed uncomfortably.

「Always interrupting others' speech, false politeness is not lacking. 」.

「I think your partner might be doing it for your own good, look at your expression just now wanting to go see. 」.

「There's no danger either, and my work here is also done. 」.

「I think, the new world you described earlier… is just as bad as the barren zone in the Hei'an region. 」.

「Bad? 」.

「No one, no Digital Beast, no life, there is only wasteland, it's the leftover land after the Great Dracula Beast fought alongside the gods, because there's nothing, it's often used to exile criminals, and it's said that criminals exiled there quickly go mad. 」.

「……」.

「Your expression looks like you can understand this kind of torment. 」.

「Not exactly understanding, just able to imagine; forget it, let's just assume he's doing it for me, come on, let's go back to the bar! 」.

——

Between the dark web and economic service accounts of hidden forums, black markets, and illegal activities, and the deep net where world and academic media records are deeply immersed, the newly born world had not yet enjoyed the blessings of the internet world before facing the dead end of its umbilical cord being cut.

Not barren at all; rather, the terrain is diverse, vegetation lush, and buildings rise up, as if in a renewed version of Earth's new world, a gloomy rain began to fall.

A certain being resembling seafood, indeed similar to seafood, the Meitelong alien, who becomes agile in the rain, is still sleepwalking.

Indeed, it's sleepwalking.

In the state of astral projection, the body remains asleep while the mind is drawn to act in the active depths of consciousness.

When your body is indeed dreaming, and it feels like a dream, then this is a dream!

And the sleepwalking Meitelong alien still wanders and runs through the rain-soaked city, shouting whether anyone exists.

No one responded.

And at the horizon where his view is blocked by countless buildings, and he still cannot see……

It is constantly contracting.

The world will become very small.

(End of chapter)