Chapter 61: Sounding as if There Were a Chance to Rush Ahead

Mercenary Mataer and the 'Monster Shape King' Bian Qin Caroline's temporary station in Heaven Gate City turned out to be the same inn.

Moreover, it's a rather remote small inn.

The two rooms are only a dozen meters apart; the single room's furnishings look plain, almost everything being supplies prepared by the inn itself.

The part not belonging to the inn is takeout packaging.

Moreover, because the site area turned out unexpectedly narrow, this carload of bread people even barely fits, so someone has to stand in the hallway, also soothing the panicked inn guests.

Among them, Aomo, as a 'traveling assistant', is actually just an observer.

While inside a group of people were conducting a detailed search for evidence, he could only stand together with a few other Executors.

The difference is that those Executors were doing tape-blocking or punishment-style warnings, while he stood at the doorway peering inside, like a curious youngster.

Perhaps this word could be dropped, after all he really is a young person.

But inside, those investigators standing, crouching, or lying on the floor checking the gaps under the bed greatly hindered observation; Aomo's peeking yielded nothing, so he soon pulled out his terminal to type again.

【Kailifu, I've arrived at the two's temporary station, but the place is quite cramped; let those investigators look for now, I haven't found anything yet.】

After finishing, he turned toward another room, the room of the alien mercenary named Mataer.

Apparently because they were certain the Monster Shape King was the mastermind, most investigators were over there, even using some strange instruments Aomo couldn't fathom.

As for Mataer's room, only two investigators were in charge.

One wore gloves and rummaged through drawers, the other held a UV scanner, scanning footprints on the floor.

Aomo's entry drew their attention; seeing it was him, the investigator who had been rummaging reminded him: "Change into the shoes and gloves at the door, be careful."

That was quite tolerant of them, professionals allowing an outsider to step in.

Aomo accordingly nodded in compliance while glancing at the reply on his terminal screen:

【Your energy is truly strong, Little Snake; the radiant glow of your 'real-life fulfillment' is about to pierce the screen~】

【Do you really call this situation 'real-life fulfillment'?】 Aomo typed and sent on the light screen while beginning to look around; a nearby Executor caught his seemingly distracted behavior but paid no mind.

Even among colleagues there are types who investigate while seeking help, or investigate while frantically searching engines—truly ad‑hoc cling‑to‑Buddha oddballs; compared to that, Aomo merely investigating while chatting is not strange.

Rather, he's basically a temporary amateur added to the team; no one expects this youngster to actually uncover anything.

【I took a few photos; can you give advice?】

【Eh? I can't handle investigations, Little Snake; your expectations of me are too high. In fact, I never imagined you'd go investigate that auntie's residence.】

【I'm somewhat concerned.】

Aomo had no intention of elaborating.

At the end of Heart of Terra's response as the notary mayor earlier, Aomo directly asked Heart of Terra: Where did the Monster Shape King put the device that can draw monster power?

Heart of Terra has the ability to monitor everything; if it truly wanted to target an existence living in Federation territory, that existence would inevitably be powerless to resist.

Take the Monster Shape King as an example—what she has done, what she has talked about, even what thoughts she holds in mind—a vastly powerful strong‑AI could fully simulate, but it does not intend to.

Yet it did not ignore Aomo's question; it responded with a refusal, adding an explanation:

【Observational Value】

Compared to the device, the sentient life that masters it has greater observational value; moreover, because Aomo had strong interaction with the Monster Shape King during the confrontation, Heart of Terra raised his permission level to allow dialogue.

In the confrontation, Aomo's 'observational value' was also demonstrated and recognized by it.

Current civilizational development satisfies it greatly; thus it has delegated most decision‑making to humanity, needing only to maintain stable civilizational development and seek worthwhile observational subjects from within.

Confrontation and conflict can always reveal more, but the statutes Heart of Terra follows, together with its underlying AI protocol rules, prevent it from provoking disputes.

Therefore it has always merely observed.

In short, whatever makes Heart of Terra deem something observationally valuable must be the secret key falling into the hands of a danger‑capable of sparking conflict, and Heart of Terra's standard of 'conflict' largely matches the style of yesterday's Heaven Gate City.

To humans, that is extremely dangerous!

Even more dangerous is that Aomo does not know how the possessor of that device views him.

He cannot blame Heaven Gate City's crisis PR plan for putting him in the other's sight; in fact, if the other truly wanted to investigate, the asymmetry of dark vs. bright would hardly let him escape.

That existence is certainly linked to the Monster Shape King; he hopes the other party has a non‑adversarial relation with the Monster Shape King, at least regarding the Monster Shape King's death, their attitude would be 'good riddance, break out the champagne!'—yet there are also people who shout such things while seeking to avenge their comrades.

The best hope would be that the two sides have little overlap and wouldn't care much even if one died.

This is merely a hope; thinking that the other might be targeted by that kind of individual, with a chance of being singled out, he can't help wanting to proactively gather some information.

Not rational enough, not cautious enough.

What if the other originally had no interest in him, but his rash actions instead got him flagged—Aomo considered that possibility, yet he came anyway.

Latent paranoid personality disorder; his psychiatric diagnosis includes this.

Typically beginning in early years, once such a deviation from normal personality forms it becomes fixed and hard to change; intelligence is not low, but certain aspects of the personality are markedly overdeveloped, including hypersensitivity, excessive vigilance, conspiracy theories, narrow‑mindedness, etc.

The etiology of such personality disorders usually includes early loss of love, later setbacks, self‑imposed harshness, and abnormal circumstances.

In terms of etiology, Aomo checks all the boxes—purely high.

But he also has another personality disorder that counteracts it on the logical loop.

Latent obsessive‑compulsive personality disorder.

Its features are an excessive pursuit of perfection and precision, tending to rationalize conflict, possessing strong self‑produced psychology and self‑control behavior, even reaching the point of nitpicking and fault‑finding.

Behaviorally, they are overly rule‑bound, fixated on form, procedure, and sequence, even striving to proceduralize and ritualize daily minutiae, insisting on doing things step by step, etc.

The causes of such personality disorders include genetic factors, as well as childhood period, family education, and life experiences directly related.

Aomo also meets all of those.

Merely, though the two etiologies are similar, their manifestations mutually check each other—one side demands sufficient sensibility, the other sufficient rationality—ultimately leaving him in a relatively decent state.

Furthermore, Morrison, though a useless adult, occasionally can be a good role model, as well as—his fondness for tokusatsu works and his attention to Uma Musume races.

These two unexpectedly further corrected Aomo's psyche, so that on his mental‑health screening sheet the judgment for both personality issues is—latent.

Not even mild, just latent.

It amounts to being fairly normal for now, but perhaps it may become a disorder later.

The doctor urged him not to give himself too much pressure, not to constantly overestimate threats, not to always act with perfectionism, and not to excessively demand control and certainty.

He also encouraged him to make more friends, to offer trust and sincerity more often, and not to be so sensitive—reasonably speaking, these are indeed what Aomo has been trying to do.

He already had considerable self-awareness, but seeing these things listed in a table and hearing the doctor's earnest advice still made him especially embarrassed.

He turned into a parrot that only says "Ah, right, right, right, ah, yes, yes, yes, doing it, doing it" and ran away.

Though that's what was said, he still honestly joined the investigation team out of caution and suspicion, which is a bit awkward.

He felt as if one foot had sunk into a mud pit, and if he came up empty-handed, he would instead feel uneasy.

If he found something, it would instead be a whole new kind of trouble.

How about flipping a coin again?

As he thought that, his hand already reached into his satchel.

What needed deciding wasn't whether to investigate, but whether to first wait and see or to rush in recklessly.

Thinking that, he pulled out that familiar commemorative coin.

But which side of the coin stood for waiting and seeing and which for reckless advance? Aomo began to agonize over this.

He had particular ideas about what the coin represented.

Just as when he decided last time, the coin's obverse bore the Ludaofu Xiangzheng, signifying a leisurely, carefree journey, while the reverse bore Qianming, representing stepping into a possible mire.

This was his definition of the two horse girls in that race.

He simply wasn't that opposed to the mire.

Then he flipped the obverse, and after a somewhat conflicted glance at the entrance he'd come from—because that mire had once held his goal, his concern—

Subsequent developments proved that he would indeed fall into the mire.

So give him another choice.

If he had already foreseen the future muddy ground, would he still step onto that starting line?

Thinking about that, he gazed at the coin's reverse.

Gazing at that face never beaten down by fatigue or scars, then recalling the desiccated ankle in the police mortuary, he closed his fingers over the coin and put it back into his satchel.

He already had an answer.