Chapter 1 A Start

Clutching his loudly ringing phone, Hao Ren was incredibly excited. His heart trembled, his thoughts trembled, he even felt his hands trembling—the vibration of a Nokia was truly extraordinary. Hao Ren believed that if he threw his old phone on the ground with the vibration mode on, it could probably run at least twenty miles per hour…

Of course, a normal call wouldn't be like this. Only when Raven 12345 called did it seem that the neurotic fellow used some special power to make a phone make a racket like a tractor. This fully ensured that Hao Ren wouldn't miss her call—Lily should have heard the sound all the way across the street.

"Hello?" Hao Ren answered the phone, cautiously uttering a greeting, afraid that Raven 12345 would think of another way to scare him.

"Yo, Hao Ren, still alive? Taking good care of your new guests?" Raven 12345's boisterous voice came from the receiver, still as energetic as it had been a few days ago. "Oh, my investigation last time was wrong. You don't just have a werewolf at your place, you should also have a blood kin… is she there with you? Doing well? No abnormal situations these past few days? I went on a business trip a while ago, let me tell you about the scenery of the Bluehorn Galaxy…"

Hao Ren was bombarded by Raven 12345's rapid-fire words, almost getting confused by her. Fortunately, he reacted in time to interrupt the somewhat neurotic woman: "Wait, wait! I need something from you!"

"Need something? What is it?" Raven 12345 asked strangely. "Salary? Then you wait, I haven't figured out how to pay you yet. Oh, you're talking about this month's benefits? It's not the end of the month yet…"

"Can you let me speak first!" Hao Ren finally couldn't help but shout, but as soon as he yelled, he quickly shrank back, thinking something bad was about to happen—the "goddess"'s personality was obviously a bit abnormal, and if he dared to yell at her like that, maybe thunder would strike him in a few seconds.

As a result, Hao Ren waited for a few seconds with his neck shrunk and didn't see any lightning outside. Raven just remained silent for a few seconds, and then spoke sheepishly, "Oh, you speak, you speak. I'm a little excited after coming back from a business trip, hehehehe…"

Hao Ren wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, not expecting the other party to be so easy to talk to. Then he sorted out his words: "It's like this, you left in a hurry, and there are many things I don't understand. Also, I encountered a strange thing a few days ago. I had a strange dream…"

Then Hao Ren roughly recounted the nightmare of the past few days where fantasy eroded reality. Raven was rarely quiet this time, and only after Hao Ren finished speaking did he hear a suspicious slurping sound from her side: "Oh… slurp… you had a strange dream? Slurp… then the situation may indeed be a little complicated… slurp, wait a moment, come over here, slurp…"

Hao Ren felt that the voice on the other side was a bit strange, and couldn't help but ask: "What are you doing there?"

"Eating instant noodles," Raven continued to slurp, "I forgot to eat breakfast this morning, just remembered."

So the other party was quietly listening to Hao Ren just to eat instant noodles! And she usually eats instant noodles too?

Hao Ren wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and confirmed that Raven 12345 was still waiting for him in the same old place. So he changed his clothes and prepared to go out. Vivian was preparing snacks for "Roll" and looked up when she saw Hao Ren's movements, asking casually: "Going out? Going to her place?"

Hao Ren nodded, suddenly remembering something to explain: "Oh right, I may not be back at noon. If Lily comes home, you can go out to eat, or order takeout. The phone number is written on the calendar, that's the only restaurant that can deliver here."

As soon as Vivian heard the word "Lily," she snorted unhappily, but before she could open her mouth, Hao Ren shut her up with one sentence: "Don't talk nonsense, Lily is actually paying for your meals, you're so poor, don't be so pretentious."

Vivian was speechless. Hao Ren didn't know how this vampire, whose qualifications were frightening, who had been bouncing around on Earth since the caveman era, and who had fought with Achilles, had developed such a good temper. Hao Ren had completely figured out Vivian's personality, so now he didn't feel as cautious and nervous as he did at the beginning when talking to her.

After explaining the matters at home and instructing Vivian not to forget to feed the cat at noon, Hao Ren left home and took the bus to that godlike workplace: the Space-Time Administration's office in Wangbatou.

The white house suspended in the sky was still the same as he had seen a few days ago. The blue servants in the house maintained the cleanliness of this residence when the master was not at home. Hao Ren ran all the way from the southern suburbs to here under the scorching sun. As soon as he teleported to the fountain square in front of the house, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief: Although Raven 12345 was not very reliable, she really had strange abilities. Her big house was in a strange space, not cold or hot, and the air was fresh. Hao Ren even wanted to stay here and not leave.

"Yo, you're here?" Raven 12345's voice suddenly came from behind. Hao Ren quickly turned his head and saw the strange silver-haired woman slowly coming out of the botanical garden in front of the house, carrying a huge and strangely styled broadsword. Seeing the grass clippings and soil on her body, it seemed that she had just finished tidying up her garden.

"I was pruning the landscape trees just now," Raven 12345 raised the two-meter-long silver-white broadsword on her shoulder. She noticed that Hao Ren's gaze was attracted by the broadsword and smiled rather triumphantly, "Very majestic, right? This is of commemorative significance—other Ravens don't have one, I'm the only one. Alright, let's talk about the situation you encountered, let's go inside."

Hao Ren nodded and followed Raven 12345 into the house. It was still the same office as when they last met, and the same furnishings as when they last met, but the scallion pancakes that had been placed on the shelf behind the desk a few days ago had been replaced with an empty instant noodle cup. Hao Ren's gaze couldn't help but fall on the red and green instant noodle cup, and he was wondering whether he should continue to believe Raven 12345's self-proclaimed identity: Putting aside whether she was a god or not, a grassroots cadre who claimed to be sent by the highest ruling agency of the multiverse usually ate this, was that appropriate?

Raven noticed Hao Ren's gaze and shrugged indifferently: "I finished eating, really gone, there's no food here."

Hao Ren: "…"

Sighing, Hao Ren sat down opposite Raven 12345, and then carefully took out a small gum box from his pocket, and then took out a pinch of dark wolf hair from the box: "This is what I told you about. After I woke up from that nightmare, I had this thing in my hand. Lily smelled it and confirmed that the smell didn't seem to be brought out from a human city."

Raven 12345 reached out and took the pinch of wolf hair, snapped her fingers lightly, and countless glittering blue and white lines appeared out of thin air in mid-air. These lines combined into a three-dimensional array at a dazzling speed, and the black wolf hair was suspended in these lines, slowly evaporating bursts of light gray mist.

Hao Ren looked at this magical scene in amazement: It seemed that this Raven 12345 could do more than just talk nonsense. Putting aside everything else, this hand was definitely stronger than Vivian's unreliable blood magic. Look how straight the lines she drew in the air were…

"It's seeping out from that world…" Raven 12345 looked at the pinch of wolf hair slowly "evaporating" until only a little residue remained, muttering to herself.

Hao Ren was stunned: "Seeping out from where?"

"The Dream Plane, but it doesn't have much to do with you—at least not much to do with you now, you can't handle this kind of problem at your level," Raven 12345 shook her head, a rare serious expression on her face, "I'll report this situation to Shadow City headquarters. That world is a notoriously difficult area, and the guys at the bureau have been waiting for news for many years."

Seeing the confused look on Hao Ren's face, Raven 12345 casually took out a hexagonal silver-white gadget and threw it over: "I can tell you lack common sense, here, this is for you, a personal data terminal, a special version for inspectors, just applied for you. You can check anything from this, including employee codes of conduct and stuff, as well as the spacetime node route map timetable, and your permission allocation… well, you're still in the probationary period, so you won't be able to use most of it, but it's always good to get in touch with it in advance."

Hao Ren only saw a silver light smashing towards his face, and he barely caught it thanks to his timely reaction. Then he heard Raven 12345's words, and he immediately became excited: This could be considered the distribution of labor protection supplies!