The safe house Carl and Rose talked about surprised Lansi.
What surprised Lansi even more was that inside, he actually saw people he had known a long time ago.
"Yo, Xiaoyu, long time no see."
Standing in the safe house, the one who greeted them turned out to be a big, bearded man.
Lao Tang recognized Lansi in the crowd at a glance. He waved a greeting, and Lansi noticed that the big man's right arm had been replaced with a mechanical one. At the same time, a small seagull was perched on his shoulder.
Seeing Lansi, the little seagull squawked at him:
[Buy--]
Lansi sucked in a breath.
*Damn, isn't this the seagull boss who used to trade with him?*
This safe house also made Lansi choke up silently, because this place had once been the apartment of Earl Vail—the blond man who had captured Lansi in the black market.
Lansi recognized it instantly. The interior layout was exactly the same as when he had been sent to the black market, caught by Earl Vail, and placed in the fish tank. It hadn't changed at all, though perhaps because the owner was dead and no one was around to care for it, a thick layer of ash coated the furniture.
Lansi couldn't help but look toward the corner of the balcony, where a wall-high fish tank used to stand.
Now, Lansi saw only the base; the fish tank itself seemed to have been broken and removed.
After turning it over in his mind, Lansi finally connected the dots on who the big man was. He asked in surprise, "Are you Earl Vail's assistant, Lao Tang?!"
Lao Tang smiled honestly.
Since the death of Earl Vail, Lao Tang, as his former assistant, had become the leader of the black market and continued to run its operations. As for his missing arm, it had been severely injured during the previous high-wall incident. With no other option, it had to be amputated and replaced with a robotic prosthetic.
"You know this seagull... Oh, no, how did you two meet?" Lansi ignored everyone else behind him and pointed to the seagull on Lao Tang's shoulder in amazement.
[Buy--]
The little seagull tilted its head and asked in the language of the sea monsters, [What's wrong with you? Don't you like this human? But this human is my little brother.]
The sea monster had no idea why Lansi was so startled. It still foolishly thought that Lao Tang was its subordinate, and that Lansi was just scared of meeting a stranger. In the little seagull's eyes, it wasn't Lao Tang who had come to see Lansi today; it was the seagull itself, riding on its little brother's shoulder to show Lansi the nest its little brother had found for him.
So, there was nothing to be afraid of.
The little seagull thought that since this human was its underling, if Lansi really didn't like him, it would just reluctantly have to fire him.
"That's a long story," Lao Tang sighed softly. He stroked the little seagull with his thick fingers, his gentle expression mimicking a tiger sniffing a rose. "As you can see, I'm now... making deals with the sea monsters."
*So that was it.*
Lansi let out a sigh of relief, only to catch his breath again immediately after.
He had always thought the things the little seagull brought him were unusually well-suited for humans. As it turned out, Lao Tang was the one putting those packages together for the bird!
From this perspective, Lao Tang possessed a much more long-term vision than his predecessor. The original blond man, Earl Vail, had limited his dealings strictly to humans. Now, Lao Tang had taken things a step further and brought his business straight to the sea monsters.
That truly was a global transaction.
"Hey, I know about the merfolk, and I've encountered those kinds of things before..."
Lao Tang's gaze began to drift. He noticed Winsor standing behind Lansi and abruptly cut himself off.
It was entirely due to the inhuman aura radiating from Winsor. It instantly dragged Lao Tang's memory back to what had happened in this very apartment—
At that time, in order to find Earl Vail, Lao Tang and the military men had broken into the bathroom. There, Lao Tang had witnessed Wen Yu execute a semi-comatose murloc. The chilling coldness Wen Yu displayed during that execution was identical to the vibe Winsor gave off right now.
It was exactly after that incident that Lao Tang's entire outlook on life and values shifted. He had begun to believe that perhaps humans should learn to coexist with sea monsters.
In an instant, the hairs on Lao Tang's arms stood on end.
Even though he was the physically imposing one, he felt his presence completely dwarfed in front of Winsor. To avoid triggering Winsor's wrath, Lao Tang feigned nonchalance, slowly averting his eyes to change the subject.
"Oh, by the way, your suitcase is in this room too. I had the seagull bring it over."
Lansi nodded frantically. Obviously, the shock he had just received was massive, and he was still digesting it.
---
By the time they settled in, it was nearly evening.
After clearing the immediate area, the group gathered to discuss their future arrangements.
To Lansi's surprise, he had initially assumed Lao Tang was merely acting as their landlord. He hadn't expected, based on Carl and Rose's conversation, that they had successfully allied themselves with the current black market boss.
This burly man looked simple and heavily built, but in reality, his mind was sharp as a needle and he possessed an incredible long-term vision. He truly was fit to be Earl Vail's right-hand man.
"The news inside the black market is much more accurate than what's circulating outside," Lao Tang said, taking a bite of a slice of bread while tossing crumbs to feed the seagull.
"After the high wall was breached, the conservatives within the Alliance gained the upper hand. They have secretly restarted the 'Wandering Project,' preparing to salvage only a fraction of humanity's spark and send them into the universe. The spaceship that sat shelved for years has been powered up again."
Following his words, the room fell into a heavy silence.
Since Lansi hadn't personally experienced the onset of this apocalypse, he asked curiously, "Is this plan a bad thing? Why does everyone look so grim?"
"This plan is effectively Noah's Ark," Rose said, looking up at Lansi with profound sorrow in her eyes. "The Great Flood of the past, Noah's Ark... back then, not all living creatures were saved by boarding that ship."
In the old stories, Noah built the ark, but because space was strictly limited, he only took a single male and female of each species to repopulate.\
In the same way, the Wandering Project can only carry a fraction of humanity as a spark; the rest are destined to be left behind to wait for death.
This plan might be even more tragic than Dr. Murin's project to alter human genetics and retake the Earth. Because Earth's resources are so depleted now, they are draining the entire planet's remaining energy just to construct the ark. Once it is built, only a tiny elite will be sent aboard to wander the cosmos, facing an completely unknown future.
"Forget it, let's not worry about those long-term things for now."
Carl, who was always cheerfully heartless, took the lead in breaking the heavy silence. He looked at Lansi and Winsor with curiosity and asked, "Do you two know what exactly is going on inside the Alliance?"
*Ha, finally getting to the point.*
Lansi and Winsor exchanged a look, and then Lansi turned to Carl with a serious expression. "The origin of this whole thing is... well, it's a bit complicated. Look, mermaids can exist in this world, right? So, if something else pops up, it shouldn't be that surprising, right?"
Winsor lifted his eyelids, casting a faint glance over the room, before propping his chin up with one hand. He watched Lansi spin nonsense with genuine interest.
Lansi naturally knew that Winsor's true nature couldn't just be casually explained to others. He himself had been utterly shocked when Winsor revealed that the origin of all life in this world was tied to him; he highly doubted regular humans would just easily accept that kind of cosmic genesis theory.
Furthermore, humans were incredibly fragile, and Will was a master of mental pollution. Lansi was terrified that if he brought his friends along without caution, his teammates would be turned into enemies on the spot.
So, after agonizing over how to phrase it, Lansi decided the best approach was to frame Winsor as a sort of entity that sheds its skin.
"Have you ever read *Journey to the West*? You know the White Bone Demon? After Monkey King smashes her body, doesn't her spirit just ditch the empty skin bag and escape?" Lansi tried to use this analogy to explain the relationship between Winsor and Wen Yu.
Winsor: "..."
As a result, the safe house fell right back into silence. Only this time, the silence was deeply awkward.
Fortunately, everyone assumed Lansi was just reluctant to elaborate because human minds couldn't comprehend Winsor's true existence. Since Carl and Rose only needed to confirm that Winsor was on their side, they didn't push any further. As for Lao Tang, having already seen murlocs and mermaids—and currently doing business with a sea monster seagull—as long as Lansi and Winsor didn't plan on killing him, he figured he was perfectly fine.
With both parties exchanging and verifying what they knew, Rose took charge and finalized the plan. It was agreed that in two days, they would sneak into the laboratory alongside Winsor and Lansi to investigate exactly what was happening inside.
"That's enough for today," Rose said, making the final call. "Let's get some rest. Starting tomorrow, we'll gather intel and secure weapons. We move on the lab in two days."
Lansi nodded rapidly in agreement.
But in reality, three hours later, when the world had fallen entirely still, Lansi quietly prepared to sneak out through his bedroom window.
"What are you doing?"
Winsor had woken up without a sound. Propping himself up on one elbow in bed, he watched as Lansi swung a leg out over the sill.
Lansi blinked. "The moon is really round tonight."
"Oh?"
"Yeah."
Since he had been caught red-handed by the very person he was avoiding, Lansi simply sat down on the window sill. "I'm not planning to let Carl and Rose get dragged into this." He paused, sneaking a glance at Winsor, and added quietly, "You either."
"Why exclude me?" Winsor asked. "Will is a part of me. He is far more dangerous to you than to me."
"If you really had a simple way to deal with Will, why haven't you just solved him already?" Lansi pointed out sharply. "Even humans, when faced with their deepest desires and darkness, can rarely overcome them. Most are dragged straight into the abyss... Winsor, I'm afraid that if I take you there, when the time comes, I'll end up having to face two Wills."
It was like when Lansi ate his favorite food and kept telling himself, *'Just one last bite.'* Because he loved it too much, every time he took a bite, he swore it was the last one, yet he'd keep going bite after bite until everything was gone. Poor self-control was one thing, but overwhelming temptation was another.
On their journey here, what happened on that island made Lansi realize that someone within the Alliance had likely noticed Will's conspiracy and was actively trying to resist him. Lansi believed that instead of blindly trusting Winsor to handle Will alone, it would be much smarter to find the "warrior" who had attempted to imprison Will in the first place.
Perhaps humans were insignificant compared to an entity like Will, but humans were incredibly clever. Lansi believed they might actually hold the key to a solution.
After listening to Lansi's explanation, Winsor fell silent for a moment. Finally, he conceded, "Perhaps you are right." He sat up fully and looked at Lansi. "When I arrived here, I realized I need to maintain a certain distance from Will... I can sense him, and he can sense me."
Winsor had only discovered this issue after entering the Alliance's territory. Within a certain radius, he and Will could feel each other's presence. Of course, Winsor was currently doing his absolute best to mask his aura, so while Will might catch a faint, fleeting trace, he shouldn't actively know Winsor had penetrated the Alliance yet.
Winsor hadn't marched straight in to confront Will with great fanfare for two reasons. On one hand, he didn't want to slaughter his way through in front of Lansi. If he truly unleashed his power to eliminate Will here, Winsor would have to shed his human guise entirely. With so many humans tightly packed in the Alliance, a glimpse of his true form would mean the entire population would lose their minds.
On the other hand, Winsor was contemplating the best method to use.
Lansi sighed. "So, right now, I need to find that hidden ally first. Then, using myself as bait, I'll draw Will out, right?"
Winsor nodded honestly.
Storming the laboratory was never part of Winsor's plan. Carl's human way of thinking easily reduced this "private grievance" (which was actually a cosmic catastrophe for humanity) into a mere political struggle between human factions. Winsor didn't care if humans played stupid games and drove themselves to extinction, but he minded immensely if Will used them to grow stronger.