The nanny understood; the young lady had grown up and was starting to yearn for the kind of romantic love seen in movies. As long as the young lady was happy, she could have whatever she wanted.
"A story can begin anytime you're happy to do it."
Because she is the daughter of the base leader, the princess of this Garden of Eden.
There were many pigeons, and their numbers kept increasing, quickly consuming the crumbs on the ground. Afterwards, some of the pigeons left the square to forage elsewhere. Without human interference, the animals returned to their wild state.
"Aunt Zhang," the girl said, sitting on a bench after feeding the pigeons, "he didn't come back again yesterday. How many days has it been since he last came back?"
"Yesterday was the anniversary of Madam's death. Sir, you must be remembering her, right?" the nanny comforted him softly. "Madam was the best wife and mother in the world."
"Mom." The girl's gaze swept across the square, across this steel jungle, as she tried to find that figure, but she couldn't.
"Miss, are you crying?"
The girl reached out and touched her cheek, only to find water droplets falling.
"Is Miss thinking of Madam?" the nanny asked, feeling sorry for her. "No one expected such an accident to happen. But as long as Miss is alright, Madam will be at ease."
"Ha..." The girl wiped away her tears, her face beaming with a smile, "I'll be fine."
"Hello, did I disturb you?" After a while, a handsome man with a sketchbook appeared in the square, and his arrival caused white doves to fly around.
"No," the girl said with a smile, and asked curiously, "Are you a painter?"
The handsome man shrugged: "No, just a wanderer."
The handsome man sat down nearby, opened his sketchbook, and began to paint.
People who are focused always have a special charm, especially a handsome man who is already very attractive. So after watching for a while, the girl carefully walked over.
What did she see? She saw a vibrant corner of the city taking shape on the drawing paper. She even saw herself, standing in the sunlight, surrounded by pigeons.
"Oh," the girl exclaimed softly.
"Your fingers must be enchanted." How could a black pencil capture that transparency that seemed to pierce through the sunlight? Even the buildings, arranged in a staggered and varied manner, were incredibly lifelike.
Of course, the most beautiful one is the girl in the middle. Even with her features blurred, you can still imagine how beautiful and touching this scene is.
Painting is the best language; without saying a word, it perfectly conveys the man's initial amazement.
"I'm sorry, I didn't get your permission..." the man said apologetically, looking up at the girl. "I just thought it was so beautiful that I couldn't help myself."
The girl's face immediately turned red.
When a person is lonely and empty, they are most likely to do foolish things, and that's when love comes rushing in.
The movie story has finally welcomed another protagonist.
Damn it!
A former player was kicking a car that had been parked on the side of the road for who knows how long; it made a loud clanging sound when kicked.
The trail went cold; the Scarlet Witch's blood, which had been dripping all the way here, simply vanished, much to the frustration of the former player. Failing just when things were about to succeed was worse than giving anyone any hope in the first place.
The NPCs who came along were disappointed but not discouraged.
"That's normal," the NPC reassured him. "The Scarlet Witch has an exceptionally strong healing ability, and only intense ultraviolet light and silver weapons can cause her damage. The small wound from yesterday will heal in no time."
"Actually, I'm already quite surprised that the Scarlet Witch left so many clues. Maybe this is where she's hiding."
After staying in place for a while, the former player calmed down. Since they had already chased the enemy this far, there was no point in going back immediately. They might as well scout around and see if the enemy had missed anything.
"In that case, shall we look around?"
"Now? But there are only two of us, so it's still..." Before the NPC could finish speaking, his dog barked in a certain direction, as if it had discovered some clue.
These hunting dogs are specially trained and only behave this way when they spot a monster.
"A monster?" The two looked at each other and then looked up at the sky. It was daytime, the daytime that monsters feared.
The NPC licked his lips, his finger on the trigger, a glint in his eye: "Want to go in and take a look?"
The former team member also picked up a weapon, clearly he was also tempted.
Before them lay a narrow, secluded alley. Even in daylight, it looked eerie, as if some strange creature might appear at any moment.
It was filled with a lot of garbage, mostly non-biodegradable plastics and glass products, and there were many black marks left on the walls on both sides, it was hard to tell if it was blood or something else.
It seems like no one has passed by here for a long time.
"Woof!" the hunting dog barked wildly into the room.
"There's probably something inside. Let's be careful and try to stay in the sunlight. Other monsters aren't like the Scarlet Witch who gets burned by sunlight, but they still hate light," the NPC said, while reassuring his dog.
"Is it the Scarlet Witch?" a former player asked. Of all the monsters, the Scarlet Witch was the most valuable; she could be seen as a stepping stone into management. The former player was even thinking of using official influence to find the 'Black Rabbit'.
The NPC simply shook his head: "It doesn't seem like it. Maybe it's some other kind of monster."
The two decided to go in and investigate anyway. Gasoline was too expensive; they had already spent a lot of money on this trip and couldn't afford to return empty-handed.
The former player, carrying his Black Hawk crossbow, cautiously approached. His boots splashed mud on the dirty water, and insects crawled on the wall, weaving layer upon layer of webs.
They walked further and further in, and accidentally kicked an empty wine bottle. The bottle made a gurgling sound in the quiet alley before it hit the wall and came to a stop.
A bead of sweat rolled down the forehead of a former teammate player, who stopped and said, "Wait."
"What's wrong?" the NPC asked, puzzled.
"I don't know, but something feels off," the former player said. It was an intuition, an intuition that had saved him before.
He retreated step by step, his nerves on edge.
But after watching for a while, the NPC didn't see anything unusual. Thinking he was overly nervous, the NPC laughed and took a few more steps forward: "It's daytime now, what traps could there be? There aren't any..."
Before he could finish speaking, a thick, pipe-like monster pushed open the well cover, leaped out, opened its three-lobed, chrysanthemum-like mouth, bit the NPC, and 'whoosh,' darted back inside. The NPC's crossbow and quiver fell to the ground.
It happened so suddenly, and it was over in the blink of an eye.
"Woof woof woof!" The hunting dog barked at the dark sewer opening, but there was no sound from inside. The player in the team took five or six meters back, about to escape, when he saw the quiver left behind by the NPC.
He ran quickly over, picked up the quiver, and turned to run: these arrows were made of silver-infused alloy arrowheads, which were extremely lethal to monsters.
The dog kept barking, but the former teammate left the alley without looking back. He had already said something was wrong here; this guy brought it on himself and had no one to blame but himself.
Following the original route, the former player returned, recounting the NPC's misfortune with a heartbroken expression. No one cared; they knew the dangers outside, and that such things could happen every day.
"That monster was scurrying around in the sewers. It was something like an earthworm with three lobes in its mouth."
Someone recognized the thing, but their expression was somewhat dismissive: "It's not that powerful, it just takes advantage of its surroundings. You should be careful, don't let your guard down just because it's daytime."
"How intelligent are the monsters? Do they set traps? Could someone be using the monsters against us?" a former teammate suddenly asked. He felt something was off, he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he just felt it wasn't a coincidence.
"Setting traps?" The NPC thought for a moment. "Of course, there are many highly intelligent monsters, some of whom can even disguise themselves as humans, which is very deceptive. But using monsters against us? You mean some other kind of monster? ... Monsters repel each other and can't cooperate at all."
In the pitch-black underground pipes, a two-headed monster as thick as a basketball is rolling around in the sewage, while an unfortunate NPC lies on the concrete ground nearby.
He wasn't dead; he was lying there, staring at something with his eyes wide open.
"The Scarlet Witch?!"
The NPC trembled as he looked at a figure in a red robe in the darkness.
Although he couldn't see clearly, he knew it was the Scarlet Witch. Humanoid monsters were rare enough, but those wearing red robes were even rarer.
At the crucial moment, he remembered that the Scarlet Witch seemed to understand human language and could communicate without difficulty.
"Spare me, spare me!" His voice trembled violently. "We've met before, I gave you food, do you remember me?"
Ren Yifei remained silent; the Scarlet Witch was known for her ruthless and taciturn nature.
Last night he made a special trip back to the scene of the incident, left his blood again, and then found the monster and used illusion magic to confuse it, all for this moment.
If the monster can't tell him about the Scarlet Witch's past, maybe a human can. That's what he thought.
It seems he guessed right.
They've met before, fed each other, and it doesn't seem like a casual acquaintance they've just passed by on the street.
He had been waiting for a long time in this stinking sewer, prepared to come up empty-handed. Unexpectedly, the NPC was so obliging and actually showed up.
Now that we're here, how can we leave?
"Have we met before?" His hoarse voice came from the darkness.
"You? You can talk?" The NPC was even more surprised than him, and even trembled.
Ren Yifei: ...Stop messing around, is this going to backfire again?
"You've even learned a language. No, maybe you already knew it; many of the lab kids did." Fortunately, the NPC automatically converted it into a skill learned within the last two years, or a skill you already knew, without raising too many doubts.
"..." 'The batch from the lab', that's quite a few key clues. We've caught a big fish,' Ren Yifei thought to himself.
The underground pipes suddenly fell silent. Seeing that the Scarlet Witch hadn't made a move, the NPC felt like he'd grasped a lifeline: "That's right, three years ago! We met!"
He tried to recall: "I saw you three years ago when I first came to this base, and I even gave you a loaf of bread."
In reality, it was like tossing a rotten, moldy loaf of bread in like teasing a dog. But the NPC automatically romanticized it in their memory and deceived themselves into believing it was a benevolent act.
Humans have been the masters for thousands of years, so it's not easy for them to suddenly regard other species as equal intelligent beings.
"Three years ago?" Ren Yifei's voice was filled with doubt.
"Yes, three years ago, in the lab. I was ordered to retrieve the odor-eliminating agent, and then I saw you, and…" The NPC slowly recounted what he knew.
"what else?"
Author's Note: Afei: Sending a monster to the human base to gather clues? The instance is messing with me.