CHAPTER 61: CHAPTER 58: WILL YOU COME WITH ME?

"And Wang Gang, Chen Fang..."

Xu Xiaoyou held a list, and King Yama read the names on it, checking them off as if doing attendance.

"Stand out yourselves, save the trouble."

The atmosphere fell into silent stillness.

The people from both gangs were dumbfounded, thinking that this short company stooge must be crazy for money, didn’t he see hundreds of them were fighting a fierce battle?

Just swaggering in like this to collect debts, does he have a death wish?

"I am called Overseas Chinese, no one calls me Zhao Tiezhu!!"

Someone in the crowd shouted, his face twisted as he operated a retired military armor, charging out from behind cover, the mechanical arm on his forearm transformed and aimed a powerful punch at Xu Xiaoyou’s head, a strike full of force!

With a loud bang, smoke and dust rose everywhere!

Both gangs simultaneously looked towards the direction of the dissipating dust, wanting to see if that overconfident guy had already turned into minced meat.

Then, they witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime scene.

Behind Xu Xiaoyou, a black-haired girl appeared out of nowhere, supporting the iron fist of the mechanical arm with a single hand, seemingly without much effort, but making it difficult for the several-meter-high metal beast to advance even an inch, the metal armor surface buzzed from the force of the recoil, on the verge of falling apart in the next second.

Inside the military armor, Zhao Tiezhu’s eyes widened to pop out of their sockets, and after meeting Bai Youyou’s cold gaze, his body began to tremble uncontrollably.

This black-haired girl, despite her significant size difference compared to the military armor, felt to him like an insurmountable mountain standing before him!

Bai Youyou exhaled lightly, her gaze narrowed, then embedded her five fingers deeply into the mechanical fist of the armor, lifting its massive body entirely off the ground, and like throwing a sandbag, she poised to throw it into the distance!

Boom—

The abandoned warehouse was smashed into a giant depression, cracks crawled all over the wall!

The shadow inside the armor was unconscious.

"Holy..." someone trembled, voice shaking.

That was a retired military armor!

Though a Cosmos Heavy Industries early military product, with simple exoskeleton coverage, that punch could flip a car, yet it was effortlessly caught?

Weighing several tons at least, and just like that a girl picked it up like a chick and hurled it away!?

Their gazes towards Bai Youyou were filled with terror, was she a humanoid Tyrannosaurus?

"Youyou, if he’s unconscious we can’t collect the money." Xu Xiaoyou furrowed his brow slightly.

"Sorry You, I forgot..."

Now, all the gang members on the scene looked at the blonde girl with a filter over their eyes.

Noticing how the people’s gazes around her changed, Xu Xiaoyou knew she had achieved her goal.

She cleared her throat with a gentle cough.

"The ones whose names were called, you can step out now."

After that scene, no one dared to be disobedient, all stepped out, paying their due, settling their debts.

Before long Xu Xiaoyou had gathered a large sum of debt, and just as everyone hoped these two plague gods would quickly leave, Bai Youyou snorted coldly, producing several shackles from her hand:

"Alright, you can all come with me now."

...

Inside the Guard House.

Looking at the silent lineup ahead, hundreds of gang members with bowed heads, the Captain of the Guard sighed helplessly, rubbing his temples in distress.

Someone in the crowd couldn’t help but laugh, only to hold it back shortly after.

Watching Bai Youyou leave, he waved his hand at the gang members:

"You can go now, cause less trouble."

"Let’s go~"

"What to eat when we get back tonight?"

"Let’s go together, grab some late-night snacks."

"Bro, that shot I gave you left four holes in your butt, you don’t mind right?"

"Eh, we’re bros."

Hundreds of people dispersed noisily from the Guard House, only a few stayed on symbolically.

"Are we just letting them go?" A young person stepped forward, urgently asking: "They all..."

"What else? Not to mention, we don’t have enough cells to hold them all here, do you really think our city’s government has any effect?"

"To put it nicely, we’re the city’s law enforcement, not so nicely, we’re private-sector security, essentially Cosmos Heavy Industries outsourced security."

"If you don’t want those lunatics driving armor vehicles to crash at our door tomorrow causing needless casualties, you’d better know what can and can’t be done."

The Captain’s eyes were weary and forlorn: "That’s the survival rules of this city."

...

Coming out of the Guard House, Xu Xiaoyou immediately noticed Bai Youyou’s face was not looking well.

The two strolled by the seaside, the summer night’s sea breeze felt pleasant on the skin, gently brushing past the face, with the sound of waves lightly passing over the beach beside the ears, the white tides rhythmically ebbed and flowed, like the heartbeat of the sea.

"You know, capturing them wouldn’t really do anything, right?" She said casually.

"Hmm." Bai Youyou seemed a bit deflated. "Don’t really think I’m some clueless fool."

"Then why bother to capture them?"

The two sat on the beach, the waves lapping their feet, crashing into numerous white foam, still faintly seeing the lights of fishing boats flickering on the dark sea surface, like small fireflies.

Night descended, the sea filled with countless stars, like treasures in fairy tales, waiting for innocent children to lift them from the water.

"Everyone has to die, so why live?" Bai Youyou said.

The sea breeze blew the girl’s hair into disorder, but her gaze remained tranquil.

"As long as they cease for an hour or two, that’s enough."

Bai Youyou hugged her legs, resting her head on her knees, fine sand passed beneath her toes, gently raking the sand until it drifted away with the tides.

"I don’t know... before coming here, I didn’t even know there were such terrible places in the world."

"Then what kind of place did you live in?" Xu Xiaoyou chuckled and asked.

"Xiaoyou, have you heard of Oasis?"

"Isn’t that a virtual world?"

"But I lived in the virtual world." Bai Youyou said softly.

Xu Xiaoyou couldn’t comprehend what she meant.

"In Oasis, crime is intolerable, and no one does anything illegal there."

"Misconduct in Oasis results in long-term confinement in the Consciousness Prison for hundreds of years."

"While here, wrongdoers can swagger out of the Guard House."

"Enough of that, I’m feeling down."

Bai Youyou’s face lightly rested on her knee, her gaze quietly fixed on the girl beside her.

"We could’ve finally gone to the aquarium, but ended up with that incident."

"Aquarium?"

The girl hid her expression in her knees, hair messy by her ears.

"Isn’t the suggestion to visit three places when going out together? Movie theater, aquarium, and amusement park’s Ferris wheel."

"Last night I spent quite some time searching online guides and planned it all out..."

Bai Youyou gently tucked her side hair behind her ear, revealing her slender neck, dazzlingly white in the moonlight.

She hugged her legs, gazing calmly at the sea: "It’s just a pity, I don’t know if there’ll be another chance."

"If it’s just going out for fun, anytime is fine." Xu Xiaoyou said, hands propped on the sand. "I’m not going to suddenly disappear."

"Hmm..."

Noticing the girl beside her moving, Xu Xiaoyou raised her head.

She watched Bai Youyou get up, watched her lightly tread on the beach, carrying her strappy shoes, lightly skipping.

Under the moonlight like silver, the hem of her dress rose and fell, the splashing water landing on her pale calves.

She quietly watched the girl, until the other turned her head, hands folded behind her, smiling at her.

"You."

"You previously said you’d leave Nest City in a few days, but don’t know where to go."

"Will you come with me?"