Chapter 159 A Chance Encounter

The second encounter between Hao Ren and these demon hunters was full of drama. After experiencing a surreal battle, they met again in a thoroughly mundane setting: Hao Ren was leading his family's vampire out shopping, while two of the demon hunters were a phone salesman and a section manager who looked no different from other ordinary office workers. And who knew what had happened to these two demon hunters, but they certainly didn't seem to have any desire to fight.

In a deserted corner between the store and the emergency exit, Liu Sheng looked at Hao Ren with a stiff expression, wanting to laugh but unable to, then took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket: "Here, have a smoke, have a smoke..."

Hao Ren used to smoke, but he had quit since a dog girl with a nose four hundred times more sensitive than a human moved into his house: "Thanks, but I don't smoke—I didn't expect to see you again in this situation. So demon hunters really live among ordinary people..."

Liu Sheng put a cigarette in his mouth, lit it, and looked around like the most ordinary white-collar worker, stealing a moment of leisure on the way to work and complaining to someone, then exhaled lightly: "Besides learning skills from my parents and practicing with experienced people when I was young, I went to private school like everyone else. I even passed the xiucai exam and almost passed the juren exam. I taught, I worked as a sailor on the earliest private steamers in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and some of the oldest Liberation shoes decades ago were produced when I was the workshop director. Ten years ago, I sold computer accessories in this city, and now I'm an inconspicuous manager in this shopping mall—do you think we live among ordinary people?"

Speaking of this, Liu Sheng paused, his gaze sweeping over Hao Ren and Vivian: "Just like you taking this vampire out for a stroll, this world is ultimately built by humans. Even if special individuals like you and I have great abilities, we still have to eat three meals a day and walk and sit like humans."

"Don't just lump me in with you," Hao Ren quickly waved his hand, "I'm human, a pure human."

Liu Sheng smiled and didn't say anything. Of course, he knew what Hao Ren was now, but it seemed he was too lazy to pursue many things. Hao Ren noticed that Liu Sheng had a look of seeing through everything and feeling tired of love. Zhao Xi should have it too, but the latter had a poker face so it was hard to tell. He asked curiously, "Are you not planning to continue working as demon hunters?"

"If we encounter evil spirits harming people, we still have to take care of it," Liu Sheng looked at Vivian with a smile that was not a smile, "But we won't cause you trouble, we're just too tired."

"What exactly did you encounter?" Vivian frowned, "I thought demon hunters were as stubborn as iron blocks, and wouldn't change their nature even if they died."

"What if there is a greater torment than death in this world?" Liu Sheng smiled, "A god said she was too lazy to use words to educate a group of lunatics, so she threw us into a... not exactly a prison, but another world specifically designed for people like us. There, on a tiny planet, there were more than forty races and more than three hundred organizations with different ideologies. Many organizations even split into four or five different factions. Everyone was denouncing the other as heretics, and the whole world erupted in a holy war every three minutes. Countless people were shouting for justice. No one cared about the origin of the conflict, and no one considered whether this kind of fighting was logical. In short, as long as you put the label of heretic on someone else, you had a 'legitimate' reason to start a war. We were thrown into such a dreamlike place, changing sides every day, fighting heretics from all over the world—while being regarded as heretics by everyone in the world."

Liu Sheng paused, and let out a long breath: "It is said that it was a microcosm, a dream created by a god who condensed all the stupid infighting and blind wars that had happened in many worlds. Those soldiers and generals who had completely lost their logic and were blinded by racial fanaticism were all illusions—but that didn't matter, it was still as impressive as the real world. We stayed there for three to five hundred years, experiencing how stupid extreme racism really is."

Liu Sheng spat out the last puff of smoke, and like a stingy petty citizen, smoked that ordinary cigarette until only a burning butt remained, then ruthlessly extinguished it in the ashtray on the trash can: "Racism is just bullshit."

Hao Ren: "..."

He thought this was indeed very much in the style of D渡鸦12345.

Vivian couldn't help but click her tongue: "Although it sounds strange, this method is quite good. Why not educate all the demon hunters and aliens in the world?"

"It's a temporary solution, not a permanent cure, that's what she said," Liu Sheng twitched the corner of his mouth, "She said that you can't use this method to solve all problems simply and crudely, as it would stifle the variability and self-correction ability of mortal races. Anyway, I don't understand, maybe as a god she has her own considerations, but we few were unlucky."

Hao Ren knew what 渡鸦12345 meant: she has always insisted on letting mortals handle their own affairs, let them evolve, develop, make mistakes, and correct themselves. Even if the entire civilization is overthrown and restarted, it doesn't matter, as long as the inheritance can continue, she will not intervene directly. She will only make some very subtle corrections as needed, and these corrections have almost no impact on the entire civilization process.

Of course, these conclusions were the result of Hao Ren's efforts to beautify 渡鸦12345 in his heart. The real situation may be this: the goddess was busy making instant noodles at the time and had no time to pay attention to these guys, and these fanatical demon hunters were really annoying and causing trouble everywhere in heaven, so that female neurosis casually opened a space door and threw them in, and all the high-sounding explanations were made up by that guy later...

Vivian crossed her arms and looked at Liu Sheng: "Anyway, I don't like fighting, and the current situation is the best. But as far as I know, the demon hunters we encountered that day should have been a passing team, you..."

"Only the two of us are locals," Liu Sheng pointed at Zhao Xi, "They went to scout... anyway, they had some missions and happened to pass by here. I was the person in charge of this area, so I came out as a temporary leader."

It seemed that 渡鸦12345's education of these demon hunters only made them feel tired of meaningless fighting, but did not fundamentally change their position and "professional ethics". Liu Sheng was still very cautious when mentioning certain confidential actions of the demon hunters. But Hao Ren had already thought of the truth: "Is it about the Day of Return?"

"Uh... you really know."

Hao Ren smiled: "You don't need to be too cautious in front of us. You can even temporarily put aside the positions of aliens and demon hunters—you know who we're working for now. Obviously, we don't help anyone. Do you think you need to guard against a group of天堂 mercenaries?" (Tiantang - Heaven)

Hao Ren temporarily thought of the title "天堂 mercenaries". Saying it like this, he felt that it was quite suitable.

Liu Sheng thought about it and said, "That makes sense. The power behind you is too great... I'll be frank. We were indeed investigating the Day of Return at the time. A group of wizards and vampires seemed to be excavating ruins in the north, but now I know they have nothing to do with you."

"North..." Vivian blinked, but she didn't remember any of her "old friends" in the north, while Hao Ren asked curiously, "How much do you know about the Day of Return? I'm also investigating this matter."

"Probably not more than you know," Liu Sheng shook his head, "I only know that aliens take this matter very seriously. They are planning to use the power in ancient relics to launch a counterattack, and the power of the demon hunters has declined abnormally in recent years. In addition, the world is no longer like it used to be, where wars can be started at will, so it is difficult for us to grasp the movements of aliens as easily as we did in the past. We only know that they are studying the Day of Return in several major activity areas—near the Arctic Circle, Africa, Central America, and a secret location in the Pacific. The most active are werewolves and vampires, and there are also some wizards involved, but I don't know what those wizards are planning: they shouldn't have any ancient relics to excavate."

"Arctic... Africa..." Hao Ren muttered, remembering these pieces of information firmly in his heart, "I understand, I will investigate who these aliens are in these places, and hope to find out their situation."

Saying that, he looked at Vivian, who nodded lightly, revealing an expression that everything was on her.

"Speaking of which, would you like to cooperate with us?" Hao Ren finally looked at Liu Sheng with a bit of expectation. Currently, he urgently needed to expand his intelligence sources among aliens and demon hunters. He had already made great progress in the alien side. Vivian knew many people, and the Aibin (Aibin) werewolf family had also spread his "庇护所组织" (Bihusuo Zuzhi - Shelter Organization) to other alien families, but he had always been unable to find a breakthrough on the demon hunter side. The only intelligence source was Nangong, that half-baked guy. The last time he left himself a list, he even left out Zhao Xi and Liu Sheng, these two big shots...

No matter how you look at it, that guy named Sanba (Sanba) is only suitable for warding off evil spirits, and can't do serious things.

Liu Sheng looked at Hao Ren deeply, and finally said very cautiously: "I am still a demon hunter, and this guy (pointing at Zhao Xi) and I are still thinking about how to go in the future, so I can't promise anything now. But... we won't be hostile in the future. Of course, I also hope that you don't drag us into your fights with other demon hunters, it will be very difficult for me."

This ambiguous statement was actually enough. Hao Ren knew that although this Liu Sheng would not take the initiative to help, he would not refuse too much if he had some harmless things to inquire about in the future, so he nodded with satisfaction. At this moment, the voice of the Data Terminal suddenly sounded in Hao Ren's mind: "Bureau message: Hilda's hometown has been located."