“Welcome,” 1810 got up first and tried to squeeze a smile on his gloomy face. “We might have set off on the wrong foot the last time we met. I had to perform two surgeries right after that incident. I was in a rush. That was why my attitude was not pleasant on that day.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s understandable since you are a surgeon. Besides, we didn’t know each other that time.” Zhang Heng then shook hands with 1810. Frankly, the conflict between the both of them was not that serious to begin with. When they first met, Zhang Heng turned up late, and 1810 had to wait for him. Hence, 1810 thought that Zhang Heng was arrogant and irresponsible.
If Shen Xixi hadn’t reminded him, Zhang Heng would have completely forgotten about it after completing a quest.
After that, Black Swan and others also stood up and greeted Zhang Heng with a smile. Except for Little Yellow Duck’s expression, experienced players like 1810 and Black Swan had their expressions return to normal. No one could see that they just had a big quarrel.
No matter the conflict, they were all on the same team. After all, and they needed to work together to rescue Yogurt at a critical time like this. Black Swan pulled up a chair for Zhang Heng, and after thanking her, he sat down with Shen Xixi.
1810 was relieved. He was worried that Zhang Heng would hold a grudge against him and make him pay for what he did. If Zhang Heng were that kind of person, though, this meeting would most likely end badly.
However, according to Shen Xixi’s description of Zhang Heng and the brief contact between the two, 1810 felt that Zhang Heng was an easygoing person to communicate freely and easily with him. As long as one did not interfere with his principles or had any conflict of interest, he would not hold a grudge. But on the other hand, it also meant that he would not be triggered and manipulated easily like other youths.
When facing these types, 1810 would find it best to be honest with every word said.
1810 did not sit down with the others. Instead, he called the waiter in and asked her to open the two bottles of Feitian Moutai that he had brought along. At the same time, he was sorting out his thoughts in his mind. To his surprise, Zhang Heng took the initiative to speak first.
“Since you are very worried about your ally’s safety, let’s get down to business first. Besides, I still need to drive later. I shouldn’t be consuming alcohol.”
1810 nodded and signaled the waitress to leave the room.
“This is embarrassing. When we fought against the mechanical Sphinx that night, you contributed the most, but we reaped the reward in the end.”
“Oh, about that. Since you have discussed with Shen Xixi beforehand, it is correct that you stuck to the agreement. I was just there to help,” Zhang Heng said truthfully. Although he was in need of points to recast the katana, he did not mind missing out on a Grade-E or F item.
“We couldn’t keep that thing with us in the end,” 1810 smiled bitterly, “Wonder Woman’s told you that we got attacked, right?”
“I heard that it was Dumbledore?” asked Zhang Heng with raised eyebrows.
“I was a fan of his, and I even bought the entire collection of books and movies that had him in it,” Little Yellow Duck interrupted and complained. “Not only did he paralyze us, but he also abducted Yogurt. He is out of character.”
On the adjacent side, Black Swan was able to analyze this incident more thoroughly. “According to the behavioral pattern of mechanical creation, they would not hesitate nor would they change their mind all of a sudden.”
“So you think that it came back after receiving a set of instructions?”
“Yes,” Black Swan nodded. “The Sphinx that we dealt with before has a behavioral pattern typical to machines. It would force the person that it met to guess the riddle, and the person would be given only three opportunities to guess the right answer. No matter what we say, as long as it is not the correct answer, we would waste a chance. If we got the right answer, it would leave. If we use up our chances and guess the wrong answer, it will punish us. There is no middle ground. As for the Dumbledore that attacked us, his goal was to rescue the Sphinx. However, it looked like someone was manipulating him.”
“Is that the last time you saw Dumbledore?”
“Yes,” 1810 said. “I could easily recognize him, especially that big beard of his. If he walks on the street, he is hard not to notice unless he used some kind of invisibility spell on himself. We thought that he would have surely some kind of trace behind, so we have been retrieving nearby surveillance tapes nearby for the past week. As a result, although Dumbledore’s whereabouts have not been found yet, we have discovered something new…” 1810 hesitated. “We saw the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Master Yoda.”
“Huh? You are referring to the Master Yoda in “Star Wars?”
“Yes, he’s exactly the same as in the movie. He has green skin and a pair of pointy ears and looks like a long-haired goblin. As for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, all four were there. With our current team, I am afraid that we are not strong enough to deal with them,” 1810 said.
It was no wonder that 1810 was so troubled. They had a hard time dealing with the Sphinx earlier, let alone the other fictional characters that played an important role in the original films and novels. Even if they did not get to keep their full strength here, as long as each possessed the strength of Sphinx, 1810 and his team could do nothing if they were to get swarmed.
They were very likely facing a group of mechanical armies. With their sole strength, the possibility of saving Yogurt was too slight, which was why they sought the elite players’ help.
“Of course, we will pay you if you decide to help us. We can pay you 400 game points and two game items. However, they are only of E and F-grade.”
These items might be no big deal to a grand guild, but considering that these were just a team made up of independent players, they should be giving off everything they had to Zhang Heng. It was a sincere move from them. To prove that they were not wasting his time, 1810 showed Zhang Heng the two items and the 400 game points that he had. These items should worth a hundred game points.
Seemingly worried that Zhang Heng was unhappy with the reward, 1810 then said, “We now have two Grade-E and three Grade-F game items. You can choose from them,” he said as he took out a lighter and a bottle cap.
Black Swan frowned, but in the end, she too unclasped the choker on her neck and put it on the table. Little Yellow Duck and Mole did the same as well. One of them took out a fish hook, and the other one took out something that looked like the foot of a bird.
Immediately, Zhang Heng was drawn to the last game item.
