"Ah, my apologies—it seems I've mistaken you for someone else." After her brain rapidly processed the situation in 0.1 seconds, Raven immediately holstered the gun in her hand and laughed awkwardly.
Raven's intuition told her that this outworld traveler probably wasn't as easy to capture as he appeared. Moreover, she had a feeling that getting involved with him would bring nothing but trouble.
In that case, it was best to give both sides an easy way out.
"No, you didn't mistake me. I am that outworld traveler." Clearly, Chen Luo had no intention of playing by the usual rules.
Raven had indeed been planning to cut ties with Chen Luo immediately—she could just forget about the bounty offered by Jackal. But Chen Luo couldn't let Raven slip away so easily.
After all, Chen Luo still wanted to join World Serpent.
Oh Raven, Raven… how could I live without you?
"..." Raven, still holding her gun, fell silent for a moment.
"Are you out of your mind? I already said I mistook you for someone else. Shouldn't you just play along now?" Raven massaged her temples as she stared at Chen Luo in exasperation.
"Just kidding. I am who I am—a flame unlike any other. Why should I deny my own identity? That's right, I am the outworld traveler! So hurry up and take me to World Serpent." Chen Luo nodded eagerly, then looked at Raven with anticipation.
World Serpent was different from Schicksal and Anti-Entropy.
Schicksal was a massive organization, and with its semi-public subordinate branches being so extensive, slipping in a spy or two wasn't too difficult.
As for Anti-Entropy, infiltrating through Cocolia was also feasible—and in fact, Chen Luo had already succeeded.
Now, Chen Luo was only two factions short of his dream of becoming a quintuple agent: World Serpent and the Honkai itself.
The Honkai could be set aside for now—it might be impossible to join in this lifetime. That left World Serpent as the final faction.
Besides, World Serpent had a lot of good stuff. It was worth taking the risk to infiltrate them. If things went south, he could always bail immediately.
Of course, all of this would have to wait until the seven-day event was over. Chen Luo might also head home first.
After spending seven days wandering around, locked in a battle of wits with these zombies, he really needed a break.
"You want to join World Serpent? What's your goal?" Raven gripped the Third Divine Key, scrutinizing Chen Luo with a guarded gaze.
"Hmm… for fun?" After some thought, Chen Luo settled on an excuse.
It wasn't like he could admit that he wanted to join World Serpent just to freeload off their resources, right?
"No. You feel like trouble. Hard pass." Raven shook her head, then took the pink-haired girl beside her by the hand and turned to leave.
If she had captured him, she could've justified dragging him back to World Serpent—if anything went wrong, Jackal could take the blame, since she was the one who'd ordered the capture.
But the more Chen Luo defied expectations, the more Raven's instincts screamed at her to stay away. So she absolutely would not take him with her.
Her intuition had saved her life more times than she could count.
What kind of fresh hell is this? I'm out.
"Wait—Raven, right? How about this: would you be interested in recommending me to join World Serpent? I really want in." Chen Luo suddenly called out to stop her.
"Huh?" At his words, Raven paused mid-step, turning back to glare at him with a frown.
"As far as I know, if someone you recommend joins World Serpent and becomes an executive, the recommender gets a hefty bonus, right?" Chen Luo asked.
"..." This only made Raven's headache worse.
Where the hell did this guy even learn about this stuff?
If he knew such trivial details, just how much else did he know about World Serpent?
And that only reinforced Raven's determination to stay as far away from him as possible.
Recommend you to World Serpent?
Not a chance.
It was true that recommenders received a bonus if their recruit became an executive, but with someone as unpredictable as Chen Luo, Raven suspected that if she did get him into World Serpent and something went wrong, her paycheck would take the hit.
Nope. Not worth it.
She'd just have to write off Jackal's bounty.
Standing opposite her, Chen Luo seemed to read her thoughts. After a moment's consideration, he tried another approach:
"Alright, alright, let's drop the World Serpent stuff. How about this—I'll hire you to hunt zombies in this city. What do you say?"
Chen Luo was starting to see the problem. His eagerness to join World Serpent was probably backfiring—Raven might love money, but she valued her life more.
So it was better to switch tactics.
"Huh?" Raven blinked in confusion.
Hunt zombies? What kind of nonsense is that?
If he'd asked her to hunt zombies in some other city where Honkai outbreaks occasionally occurred, she could've understood it as maintaining order. But this was a city in the throes of the Third Honkai Impact.
The place was crawling with zombies. What was there to hunt?
"That's right, you heard me—hunting zombies. For every zombie you kill, I'll pay you 100,000 yen. No matter the type, the base rate is 100,000 yen per kill." Chen Luo cut straight to the point.
You're a mercenary, right? Fine—then I'll hire you to cleanse this city of zombies.
Of course, the first step was adding her to the squad.
While squad members killing zombies would only yield Crystal rewards, and not achievement kills or Honkai adaptability, was that really a problem?
Not really.
If not for the fact that there was literally no one else in this damned city to hire, Chen Luo would've recruited 100,000 special forces soldiers to purge Nagazora.
But alas, Chen Luo had no usable manpower.
Ordinary mercenaries were out of the question—they'd probably turn into zombies the moment they set foot in the city. As for Schicksal's forces? No way—they were still trying to capture Chen Luo. Why would they help him?
The most viable candidates were St. Freya Academy, but that was also a tall order. Chen Luo had no bargaining chips to convince them to come to a city in the midst of the Third Honkai Impact just to kill zombies.
If you were to ask Theresa, Himeko, and the others to help with the slaughter, they would naturally agree and assist Chen Luo.
But it's impossible to expect them to abandon their actual duties just to come here and engage in "pointless" killing, right?
Sure, they might help eliminate 100 or even 200 targets, but three straight days of slaughter? Mmm… no.
As for Venti—Chen Luo was afraid that if Venti came to this world, he might immediately turn into the Herrscher of Wind.
The chances were slim, but not zero.
Even if Chen Luo wanted to borrow the Gnosis, leaving aside whether it would still function in this world or if Venti would even agree to lend it—what if, upon arriving here, the Gnosis suddenly transformed into a Herrscher core? How would Chen Luo ever repay Venti then?
So Chen Luo realized that exploiting loopholes to farm points was far more difficult than he'd thought.
Thus, he gradually abandoned the idea.
But the Raven before him was an excellent tool to use.
Strong, already right in front of him, available for hire—all it took was money. Why not take advantage?
Raven likely wouldn't care which organization her employer came from, especially someone like Chen Luo, who wasn't affiliated with any. She'd probably be more than willing.
"10,000 yen per zombie? Do you even have that kind of money? And why do you want them dead in the first place?" Raven froze momentarily at Chen Luo's words.
10,000 yen per zombie equated to roughly $815.10. 10,000 zombies would mean $8.15 million.
Most importantly, given Raven's strength, eliminating a single ordinary zombie would be trivial.
An offer like this was undeniably tempting.
"Of course, it's to restore peace to Nagazora. With so many zombies roaming around, what if they threaten any remaining survivors?" Chen Luo declared with conviction—though even he didn't believe his own words.
"Do you really have that much money?" Raven eyed him skeptically.
From the intel she'd gathered, Chen Luo was an outworld traveler. How would he possess so much of this world's currency?
"Not initially, but after raiding vaults and banks, I do now. Look, here's the proof." With a wave of his hand, countless gold bars materialized midair, piling up before him.
The glittering sight nearly blinded Raven.
Then, with another wave, the gold vanished.
"Vaults? Banks? Damn it, why didn't I think of that?!" Raven smacked her thigh in frustration.
If she'd been smarter—if she'd looted the vaults and banks during the Third Honkai Impact, when the city was practically dead—she wouldn't have needed to work so hard!
But it was too late now. Since this shameless outsider had brought it up, it meant he'd already taken everything.
Damn foreigner.
And an opportunity like this would probably never come again.
"You know I'm an outworld traveler, so this wealth means nothing to me. So? Will you take the job? Over $800 per zombie—just a single bullet for you. And if you kill enough, I'll even double the bonus." Chen Luo's voice dripped with temptation.
As he said, gold held no real value to him. His family back home was well-off—not city-rich, but he had no need for excessive wealth.
Now was the time for this plundered gold to prove useful.
Admittedly, Raven was tempted. But then she glanced down at the pink-haired girl clinging to her hand, still dazed and confused.
Money was crucial for a mercenary like her, but some things in life mattered just a little more.
"If 10,000 yen isn't enough, how about $1,000 per zombie?" Chen Luo pressed, seeing her hesitation.
That kind of offer would've made even his past self sign up instantly.
$1,000. For one zombie.
Put in even moderate effort, and she could rake in $10 million a day.
But Chen Luo didn't feel the slightest loss. If Raven accepted and joined his squad, every zombie she killed would net him at least 2.5 Crystals.
$1,000 for 2.5 Crystals might seem ludicrous, but with an entire vault at his disposal, it was nothing.
Crystals and Primogems were the real universal currency.
Hell, even without the vault, Chen Luo could trade a single 5-Primogem Tri-Color Dango to Otto for at least $1 billion.
A life-restoring food item? Who wouldn't want that?
For Schicksal, compared to their annual R&D budget, $1 billion was pocket change. Otto would pay in a heartbeat.
So gold and money were no longer Chen Luo's endgame.
Using these material things to obtain Crystals was his priority now.
His own strength had limits. Hiring Raven would tip the scales.
A rough estimate? She could earn him thousands of Crystals.
Hearing the increased offer, Raven's resolve wavered again. But the warmth of the child's hand in hers kept her grounded.
If she went zombie-hunting, what would happen to [her]?
If something happened while she was away—Raven didn't know if she could live with the regret.
"Tell you what. On top of $1,000 per zombie, I'll help you set up a survivor base. How's that?" Noticing her gaze, Chen Luo stroked his chin and made a new proposal.
"…Huh?" Raven's head snapped up.
"Don't look so surprised. Why else would I want the zombies gone? Aside from personal dislike, maybe—just maybe—I care a tiny bit about the survivors too."
"And what do you think of this stronghold? A commercial tower, fully stocked—perfect for a survivor base, no? Thanks to my zombie traps yesterday, the surrounding area's practically clear. Safest spot around." He gestured proudly at his makeshift camp.
"You caused those explosions yesterday?" Raven suddenly asked.
The four mushroom clouds that lit up the city yesterday had left an impression.
"That's not important. What is important is that this base is flawless. All we need to do is seal the lower entrances."
A high-end tower like this naturally had excellent security—heavy-duty metal gates at the base, sturdy enough that Chen Luo had chosen it for this very reason.