CHAPTER 341: CHAPTER 215: WHITE CROW TRAVEL BRIGADE, 12 MEMBERS, ALL ASSEMBLED

Deep into the night of July 31st, Norway.

It’s just a few hours away from the countdown to the landing of the Legendary Whale "Chikanao" in Bergen.

At Bryggen Pier, a group of people dressed in various outfits were gathering. Some wore robot helmets, some donned black trench coats with a crow perched on their hand, while others danced gracefully in the wind in red dresses, their light golden hair fluttering.

The twelve members of the White Crow Travel Brigade were gathered here, scattered around the pier.

Xia Pingzhou leaned against the pier’s railing, chatting with Andrew and Tong Zizhu while enjoying the sea breeze.

From the railing, he lifted his eyes to see Bai Tanlang standing on the deck of a fishing boat, resting his eyes against the mast, while Anluns stood beside him, smiling and incessantly provoking him—clearly, the two had room for improving their relationship.

Jack the Ripper, or as she was also known, "Yanmo Lin," was leaning against the back of a wooden fish house, playing "Ninja Fruit Slice" on her phone.

Bloodline stood at another corner of the port, gazing at the distant dark horizon, perhaps reminiscing about the matter of Restriction Level 1001.

Only Ayase Origami quietly sat on a public wooden bench at the pier, practicing typing on her phone.

The young lady recently learned to use a phone and heard hackers teasingly comment that her typing was slow, like a machine, prompting her to compete with them. Today, she still wore her usual reddish-brown kimono, saying she was accustomed to wearing it during missions.

Under the pitch-black night sky, the sea rose and fell, black waves crashed against the shore, breaking into white foam. Xia Pingzhou watched the sea silently while eating a piece of reindeer sausage with a fork, awaiting the whale’s arrival.

He glanced at team member 7, "Robert," whose mechanical carrot-headed appearance was still striking, with two antennas pointed high, compelling attention.

Several hours ago, Robert had set up teleportation gates all around Bergen, ensuring that even if the Legendary Whale appeared in another direction, he could immediately lead all the brigade members to various ports in Bergen, grandly welcoming the giant whale.

Xia Pingzhou took a bite of sausage with his fork and turned to look at a church at the port.

Urushibara Osamu was sitting at the spire of the church, the wind lifted his black trench coat tails, and a crow rested on the back of his hand.

The crow he created had recently flown off to every corner of the city, surrounding the skies, so regardless of where the Legendary Whale "Chikanao" appeared on the sea, the crow would sense it first and notify him.

Urushibara kept his gaze down, quietly reading "Ulysses" in his hands while his right hand was building a card tower on the spire.

Time wove on unknowingly, arriving at Norwegian local time, 12:00 AM, August 1st.

After a few seconds delay, a black-and-white panel popped up before Xia Pingzhou.

[Time has reached August 1st, Main Quest 1 has refreshed.]

[Main Quest 1 (Third Stage): Invade the Whale Terrarium with the White Crow Travel Brigade, seize the Royal Court’s treasure, and successfully survive this operation.]

[Quest Rewards: 2 Skill Points, 2 Attribute Points, 2 Split Points]

The rewards were quite substantial, Xia Pingzhou thought, hopefully nothing would go wrong.

"Speaking of which, who is Su Ying?" He turned his head from the railing, looking at Tong Zizhu, "Why do you use her name to conduct missions?"

"Foster mother." Tong Zizhu lowered his baseball cap, "I quite like her, but she left quietly after handing me to a kindhearted family. Fortunately, I learned she was an Exorcist, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to find her in this lifetime."

"Didn’t she talk to you about herself?"

"No, she never mentioned her own matters, only saying she had an important mission and thus couldn’t stay with me." Tong Zizhu said, "She was only in her twenties back then, right?"

"Could she be dead? Being an Exorcist is a high-risk job, especially since she went on an important mission, isn’t this a typical death Flag in movies?" Xia Pingzhou asked.

Tong Zizhu cast him a cold look: "Even if she’s dead, I need to see it with my own eyes to believe it."

Xia Pingzhou thought for a moment: "Didn’t you ask the hacker to investigate? He is the brigade’s common electronic pet, asking him for help wouldn’t be wrong for finding someone."

Tong Zizhu looked puzzled, seemingly unwilling to answer this question.

At that moment, Xia Pingzhou’s phone suddenly vibrated.

[Hacker: Are you human?]

[Xia Pingzhou: Where are you, we’ve gathered, why haven’t I seen you yet?]

[Hacker: Idiot, I’m on the boat right in front of you.]

[Xia Pingzhou: Oh, I see you now, your height’s too short, blocked by the fishing boat’s mast.]

Xia Pingzhou typed while glancing at the fishing boat’s mast, where the hacker was sitting and playing with his phone. Sensing his gaze, the hacker raised a middle finger without turning his head.

Xia Pingzhou turned to Tong Zizhu and asked, "So, you didn’t have the hacker investigate that woman named ’Su Ying’?"

"I did, but he couldn’t find anything," Tong Zizhu replied.

"Is there actually something he can’t find out?"

"The kid said he could keep looking, but the risk is high, and he doesn’t want to deal with that kind of trouble."

After all, all of Gu Qiye’s family data has been deleted by the authorities. He’s from Blue Arc, and the authorities must be tightly guarding his family background, probably setting up a bunch of traps in the database, Xia Pingzhou thought.

Bernardo, dressed in a white trench coat, approached. "What are you guys talking about?"

Tong Zizhu, leaning on the railing with one hand supporting her cheek, turned to look at him. "Talking about you... I heard you have a grudge with someone from the Royal Court Team?"

Bernardo was silent for a moment: "’Sword in the Stone’ Laine, he used to be my best friend, but in the end, I was exiled from the Terrarium while he became part of the Royal Court Team. Quite ironic."

"What exactly was the forbidden Anecdote you used?"

Bernardo slowly said, "The common-level Anecdote ’Necromancer’ can make the bones of the dead stand up and work for you. My family died of illness back then, and there was no money for treatment. Later, I worked hard to find this Anecdote Fragment in hopes of reviving the souls of the dead, but in the course of my research, I was discovered by the Royal Court Army, whose captain was ’Laine’, a friend I made at Anecdote Academy."

He paused, "Laine reported me to the King, who sentenced me, and in the end, the King confiscated my Anecdote Fragment, exiled me for ’Corpse Desecration’ and ’Forbidden Anecdote’ charges, and decreed I shall never set foot in the Whale Terrarium again."

"That’s really tragic," Xia Pingzhou said, "Lost your family and got stabbed in the back by an old friend."

"Indeed," Bernardo adjusted his single-sided mirror with a silent bitter smile, wrinkles forming at the corners of his eyes, "When I heard Laine had become a member of the Royal Court Team, I got even angrier... of course, with his abilities, it was well-deserved."

Tong Zizhu asked curiously, "So... can that fragment really bring someone back to life?"

Xia Pingzhou turned to look at her, "Why do you ask? Do you want to use it to resurrect Su Ying?"

Resurrect, indeed, the mother of Black Cocoon, he thought.

"Mind your own business." Tong Zizhu shrugged, "How about using it to bring your mother back?"

"Haha, I have too many mothers waiting to be resurrected, they’d all have to queue up in Hell," Xia Pingzhou quipped internally.

Bernardo shook his head.

He said, "In fact, there is no Anecdote Fragment in the world capable of reviving the souls of the dead... I was just overly nostalgic for my family and wishfully thinking. I fear not even a Mythical Level Anecdote could achieve resurrection, let alone the ’Necromancer’ which is merely a common-level Anecdote."

"Oh, so what happened afterwards?" Tong Zizhu asked with curiosity.

Bernardo thought for a moment, "Later, fortune came in disguise. After I was exiled from the Terrarium, I found a Generation-Level Fragment in this world—the ’Black Death’, a very special fragment whose growth method is unlike any other Generation-Level Fragment... For these years, I’ve been accumulating power so that one day I can return to the Terrarium and avenge those who betrayed me."

Andrew took a hearty swig of red wine, placed the bottle on the railing, and let out a satisfying sigh of relief, "So, brother, once we get into the Terrarium, are you going to duel with Laine?"

"Of course," Bernardo smiled, "That’s the request I made to the leader."

Andrew joked, "You’re about to get your revenge, but be careful not to get sliced in half."

Bernardo adjusted his single-sided mirror, "I won’t, I know him very well."

Xia Pingzhou said expressionlessly, "It’s fine, getting sliced in two is still decent. Recently, two of our team members met worse fates; they were smashed into soy sauce."

"Ahahaha—! You little brat, do you believe I’ll shoot you when the fight starts?" Andrew laughed wildly while patting the railing, tears almost squeezing out of his eyes.

He seemed to have come to terms with Lan Duoduo’s death.

Xia Pingzhou shrugged, unconcernedly responding, "Shoot if you want, it’s no big deal, just don’t snipe my King."

Amidst the idle chatter, a flock of black crows suddenly rushed across the sky from beyond the horizon, flapping their wings and dropping black feathers like a herald of an impending storm, drawing everyone’s attention.

Suddenly, a massive shadow rose on the horizon, even blocking the moon’s reflection on the sea. The entire ocean began to stir restlessly, and under the moonlight, the shadow gradually revealed the silhouette of a whale.

It was swimming towards the port with a slow but determined pace.

At that moment, atop the steeple of the church, Urushibara Osamu looked up from the pages of his book, his deep eyes fixed on the giant shadow beneath the horizon. As he closed his copy of "Ulysses," he broke the silence of the port:

"The Legendary Whale ’Bankanao’... has arrived."