Chapter 294 - Social Engineering (1/2)

Chapter 294: Social Engineering

These familiar words of ‘distance is our friend’ made Jiang Baimian and the others suddenly feel like they had truly returned to Redstone Collection.

This was a settlement that had all its members believing in the Vigilance Church. Everyone was overly vigilant and always emphasized hiding themselves and maintaining distance.

For the few people that the Old Task Force encountered yesterday, they either didn’t have any conversation at all and only had a weak interaction with each other, or they acted very humbly due to their hegemonic reputation in Redstone Collection. They didn’t show their local characteristics or religious habits.

As her thoughts raced, Jiang Baimian turned her head to glance at Shang Jianyao and vaguely gloated. She meant: See, to vent your anger, you revealed your secret and allowed others to know that you are an Awakened. With sufficient preparation, there’s no way to close the distance with them now and rely on Inference Clowning to make key friends for the infiltration of the Underground Ark.

This also meant that at least one-third of the feasible plans that Shang Jianyao was drafting was dead in the water, and this one-third was the plans with a relatively higher chance of success.

This was a good thing for Jiang Baimian—who was wavering inwardly while preferring not to be a busybody.

She smiled and replied to Ulrich, “I can understand your vigilance.”

It’s already very polite of him not to leave them out in the cold after what happened last time.

Ulrich clearly had no intention of exchanging pleasantries. He asked, “What’s the matter?”

Jiang Baimian pointed at Genava—who was wearing sunglasses. “As you can see, we recently obtained a robot, and we don’t have enough high-performance batteries. We want to trade a batch with you.”

As she said this, Shang Jianyao looked at Genava and spoke like he did to ordinary robots. “Come, play a song for Mr. Butler.”

Genava analyzed the situation and felt that it was necessary to disguise himself. Therefore, he loaded the play module, and a three-dimensional voice sounded from his mouth. “Only…”

He had just sung a word when Jiang Baimian stopped him. “There’s no need. Mr. Butler can understand.”

Ulrich had a certain level of understanding of this Ruin Hunter team. He ignored this interlude and said with an unchanged expression, “It’s still winter. The goods stored at the end of the year have already been sent out. As for the smugglers from Future Intelligence, they might only arrive in a month or two.”

What he meant was that the Visa Trading Company didn’t have much stock now. It would still be a long time before the new smuggled batteries arrived.

Long Yuehong’s conclusion was: The landlords don’t have any surplus food either!

He now quite understood Bai Chen’s fear of the Old World’s entertainment. If not for his team leader, the mission restrictions, and the pursuit of Mechanical Paradise, he suspected that he would’ve been obsessed with it.

The people of the Old World sure enjoyed themselves!

Jiang Baimian remained unmoved and smiled. “The Underground Ark also consumes a large portion of high-performance batteries. You definitely kept a portion for backup. I wonder if you can carve out some. The price is negotiable?

“New goods will arrive in a month or two. Maybe Future Intelligence will have another breakthrough in battery technology. The new model will have much greater capacity than the old batteries. We can help you clean up your inventory.”

Ulrich thought of the Ruin Hunter team’s performance in Redstone Collection and the fact that his master didn’t fly into a rage despite the previous shock. He pondered for a few seconds and inquired, “How many do you need? If it’s not that many, I’ll see if we can squeeze out a few.”

Jiang Baimian smiled. “Fifty.”

Ulrich suddenly coughed, unable to maintain a serious and professional attitude.

Twenty to thirty seconds later, he finally collected himself. “That many?”

Are they forming a robot guard?

This could be used to support ten robots—as long as they didn’t use high-energy modules like laser weapons or often needed to fight.

“How many pieces can you provide at most?” Jiang Baimian asked in response.

Ulrich thought for a moment and said, “Five.”

“That’s too little,” Shang Jianyao commented on Jiang Baimian’s behalf.

“There’s nothing more.” Ulrich’s attitude was rather firm.

I’ll get Shang Jianyao to storm into the Ark and turn your warehouse upside down! said Jiang Baimian inwardly in an angry fit and deliberated before saying, “Reserve these five high-performance batteries for us for three days. We’ll ask elsewhere.”

She didn’t plan on letting the team stay in Redstone Collection for too long. After all, this place had a very close trade connection with Mechanical Paradise. Furthermore, they had also revealed that they had passed by Redstone Collection in Tarnan. Therefore, there was a high chance that Mechanical Paradise’s pursuit team would chase after them.

Although Jiang Baimian already had different thoughts about this, she still felt that she had to be careful.

“No problem.” Ulrich didn’t harp on the issue. From his point of view, it was definitely worth it to use five high-performance batteries to send this Ruin Hunter team away. It wasn’t like the other party wasn’t exchanging for them with other supplies.

…

After leaving the underground mall, the Old Task Force drove straight to the lake and arrived at the lakeside villa where Anhebus often lived.

Outside the corresponding underground parking lot, just as Bai Chen stepped on the brakes, Jiang Baimian looked at the entrance and said in confusion, “There’s no one inside…”

“Yes.” Shang Jianyao and Genava gave affirmative answers respectively.