……
“Then… Mr. Roland, the association's third line of defense is entrusted to you.”
“Don’t worry, I will do my best.”
Roland bid farewell to Pan Shi and walked out of the garrison office, letting out a soft breath.
Things weren't as smooth as he had thought. Prism City's tracking of the Demonic Fallen had also come to a standstill, and he hadn't been able to obtain any more information about their whereabouts.
The garrison had summoned him mainly to arrange the security tasks for the Martial Arts Tournament.
This plan had been mentioned before. After the tracking operation was frustrated, it became one of the main plans to counter the enemy—since the Demonic Fallen were hiding so deeply, it would be better to wait for them at the tournament. In order to prevent internal consumption, the association's high-level officials simply set out a competition schedule, requiring the star martial artists to execute it according to the table's contents.
In other words, this year's Martial Arts Tournament would be completely transformed into a carefully arranged trap.
Although it had the suspicion of match-fixing, in the face of a crisis of survival, everyone was clear about what was important. The higher-ups attached great importance to this, pulling each person into the office for private talks, which could be considered as preserving everyone's face. Roland saw many star figures in the hall when he came, but no one showed any dissatisfaction.
According to the plan, the entire defense circle was divided into four layers. The government guards and association members disguised as spectators formed the first layer, whose main task was to identify the enemy and eliminate those Demonic Fallen who were alone. The second layer consisted of the star martial artists on and off the stage. The third layer was composed of hidden old-school masters, and the last layer was the garrison itself.
Such a complex arrangement was firstly to ensure that the Martial Arts Tournament could proceed seemingly smoothly before the Demonic Fallen appeared on a large scale, and secondly to consider that the opponent might have someone who could instantly control martial artists, making it difficult to ensure complete safety by only screening the entrances.
As the holder of a hunting license, he was naturally assigned to the third line of defense—in fact, he was responsible for monitoring not only suspicious individuals in the venue but also the participating martial artists.
Although Roland was slightly disappointed that he hadn't obtained new clues about the Demonic Fallen's hiding place, he didn't have any better ideas at the moment. Setting up a trap and waiting for them to walk into it was already the most feasible approach.
After all, his association knew more.
The Demonic Fallen weren't simply attracted to "natural force."
What drove their actions was the will from the divine realm. Their ultimate goal was to destroy the Dream World and return all magic to the Realm of Consciousness.
Therefore, the enemy shouldn't easily let go of the opportunity to acquire so many cores at once.
As he walked to the corner of the corridor, a woman's figure suddenly appeared in front of Roland.
He immediately felt a tightness in his scalp. He could bump into anyone, but it had to be the person he least wanted to see at the moment.
The association's genius martial artist, Fei Yuhan.
“Ah… it’s you.” She seemed to notice Roland as well, raising her head and saying.
Only the two of them were in the empty corridor. If he pretended not to see her at this moment, it would be too awkward. He had no choice but to clear his throat and force a smile, replying, "Ahem, hello."
However, her next words made his smile freeze on his face.
“By the way, I haven't properly thanked you for what happened last time.” She proactively extended her hand, saying nonchalantly, “Thank you for taking down that strange monster and rescuing everyone from the crisis.”
“Uh…” Roland didn’t know what to say for a moment, and after a while, he barely managed to say, “Y-You’re welcome…”
“It’s a pity that the association has pushed all the credit onto my head…” Fei Yuhan sighed softly.
“No, no, no, it’s better this way,” he quickly waved his hand, “Actually… I have to hide my identity for some special reasons. The fewer people who notice me, the better.”
“Alright then,” she unexpectedly didn’t delve deeper into the matter, but rather agreed readily, “Since you say so, then I’ll accept it as a gift.”
Roland felt a surge of surprise in his heart. Why would Fei Yuhan accept this explanation so calmly? If she still remembered everything that happened before she fainted,
Then she wouldn’t forget the voice of the spirit. But looking at her attitude, it was clear that she wanted to gloss over the matter.
From the previous contacts and the reputation he had heard, she wasn’t a carefree person, and could even be said to be the complete opposite—like all young geniuses, Fei Yuhan was arrogant and picky, with extremely high demands on herself and others. Her words were often filled with a coldness that kept people at a distance, and she was by no means an easy martial artist to get along with.
But now, her behavior was completely different from the image in his mind.
“By the way,” Fei Yuhan asked casually, as if suddenly remembering something, “What kind of encyclopedias do you think a history enthusiast would like?”
Roland was stunned, "Why are you asking this?"
“Remember that survivor from the Kagard Peninsula we visited last time?” she explained, “Vakiris xiaojie, she's now a member of my team. Originally, I was worried that she would be too bored while recovering from her injuries, but I didn’t expect her interest to be in reading—in this month, she has almost flipped through all the history books in the library.”
You actually worry about others? Roland twitched the corner of his mouth inwardly. Just as he was about to speak, a flash of lightning struck his mind, making the hairs on his back stand on end! Wait, wasn't the Vakiris she was talking about the devil he vaguely recognized in the memory fragments?
In this month, she had been constantly reading, and all of them were history books?
“...From beginning to end?”
“Sort of, especially war history. Interesting hobby, isn't it?”
Could it be... is this just a coincidence? Roland's mind raced, and the words that came to his lips changed temporarily, "Indeed... I think it should be encyclopedias about people and society. I'm sorry, I still have tasks assigned by the garrison, and I have to go now."
Although the topic was cut off somewhat abruptly, Fei Yuhan didn't show any dissatisfaction.
“Me too.” She nodded, “Goodbye, Mr. Roland.”
“Ah… goodbye.”
After she turned and left, Roland's face turned somber as he strode downstairs.
……
The pace quickened.
Fei Yuhan stopped, quietly listening to the gradually receding footsteps.
This "chance encounter" wasn't a coincidence, but rather the result of her deliberately choosing the timing.
Honestly, Roland had always been the most difficult point to confirm in her speculation. He was different from Vakiris. If it hadn't been for that "Your Majesty," she wouldn't have been able to find any flaws in him—for example, during the last visit, he took out his phone three times a minute, his eyes lingered on beautiful women for one to two seconds longer, and he always chose cola when selecting drinks... Everything was no different from ordinary people in this era.
This led to an unexplainable contradiction in the idea of "another world"—since Vakiris knew Roland, it meant that they came from the same world, but why was there such a big difference between them?
Therefore, this encounter was both a response to the other party's kindness and an attempt by Fei Yuhan.
And the result was very surprising.
Roland seemed to realize Vakiris's specialness through her reminder, but the reaction was very different from what she expected. As a "partner" who also came from another world, if he wanted to keep this matter hidden, he should have quietly covered for Vakiris.
But the first emotion he showed was strong vigilance, even more so than when she mentioned the joint eradication operation.
Although Roland tried his best to cover it up, the twitching of the muscles in the corner of his eyes was still clearly captured by her.
He was clearly much worse than Vakiris at controlling his expression.
It seems that this attempt was indeed very rewarding.
Since she had decided to maintain this tacit understanding and continue to observe, then the next interaction between these two would undoubtedly allow her to obtain more clues.
Fei Yuhan raised the corners of her mouth and knocked on the door of the garrison office.
……
Roland returned to the tenement building complex and immediately found Phyllis and Thorne.
“I need you to monitor a devil. It may have come from the memory fragments of a resident of this building!”