Day 4, 12:00 PM.
"Let me see. You've killed over 600 zombies in nearly a day, right?" Chen Luo took the simple form Raven handed over and said.
Generally, after mercenaries complete an employer's task, they submit some proof to claim the bounty—sometimes photos, sometimes items from the target, or simply a video or the target's head.
But none of these were very practical in Nagazora. Zombies slowly dissipate after death, so taking something from them wasn't realistic.
Photos were also quite troublesome—taking one after each kill...
Raven was a long-range sniper. The Third Divine Key could see far distances, but a camera couldn't.
As for videos, Chen Luo didn't have time to watch them one by one. If he had that much time, Chen Heng might as well go kill a few zombies himself.
So, Chen Luo simply told Raven to just submit an estimated form.
"To be precise, 669," Raven said.
"Hmm? 669? Isn't it 619? Did you remember wrong?" Chen Luo glanced up at his party's kill record, then gave Raven a strange look.
Well, well, I didn't expect you, Raven, with your honest appearance, to falsify reports.
"!"
"Ahem, I misspoke earlier. It is indeed 619," Raven paused, then corrected herself.
Raven truly hadn't expected Chen Luo to know the exact number of kills.
She naturally knew how many zombies she had killed. This was also a test to see if Chen Luo would believe her. If he did, Raven wouldn't suffer any loss and could even score a few tens of thousands of dollars for free.
But now, her test seemed utterly powerless before Chen Luo. Raven really couldn't figure out how Chen Luo knew the exact number of zombies she had killed.
"Your kill count is a bit low," Chen Luo shook his head disapprovingly.
"Do you think everyone can sense the exact location of zombies like you? You have no idea how hard it is to find them once they hide inside buildings," Raven couldn't help but complain upon hearing Chen Luo's words.
Zombies didn't just loiter on the streets all day. Some turned into zombies right inside their homes, so they remained there or inside other buildings.
Unless absolutely necessary, Raven wouldn't venture deep into buildings to search for and kill zombies.
She preferred jumping between high-rises, stationing herself at elevated positions to snipe the zombies.
As for Honkai beasts, Raven had some ability to deal with them more easily, but... Chen Luo only stated the price for zombies, not for Honkai beasts, right?
Besides, Raven wasn't solely focused on killing zombies; she was also searching for survivors.
"Searching for survivors isn't an excuse. Look, you only found one survivor all day. Look at me, I found two in a day," Chen Luo said, pointing towards the children in the corner of the survivor camp diligently trying to learn the language.
The number of people in the survivor base had now expanded to five.
Four little girls and one little boy—the gender ratio was extremely uneven, but there was nothing to be done. After all, the difficulty for males to survive a major Honkai outbreak was exceptionally high.
This world itself was unfriendly to males, or rather, males were rather unlucky, not lasting until Dr. MEI from the previous era could modify male genes.
"..." Raven had no rebuttal for Chen Luo's words.
He had indeed found more survivors than her, and probably killed more zombies too.
But what could she do?
"I think this should be blamed on the Seven Thunders of Retribution. Since we're only killing ordinary zombies, it stopped cooperating later on," Raven said, taking out her Third Divine Key.
"Really? You're blaming a weapon? And you're telling me this slingshot is the Third Divine Key?" Chen Luo pointed at the slingshot in Raven's hand.
"Whether you believe it or not, this really is the Third Divine Key," Raven said, fiddling with the slingshot in her hand.
"The Third Divine Key, the Key of Sentencing, Seven Thunders of Retribution. Like the Herrscher of Thunder, who is the source of its power, it is a capricious lady. Not just its power, but its output, ammunition type, performance, and even its weapon form change unpredictably in different situations or in different hands," Raven explained to Chen Luo.
Of course, she only explained these basic details. Anything involving the Third Divine Key's special abilities, Raven didn't mention at all.
"Then, can I take a look?" Chen Luo pointed at the Third Divine Key.
"No," Raven refused outright.
Are you kidding? After seeing you store gold in some special space, would I dare let you look at the Third Divine Key?
What if you take it? What would I do then?
For a seasoned mercenary like Raven, caution was absolutely necessary.
Otherwise, she'd have been eaten alive long ago, bones and all.
Even though this Chen Luo seemed quite agreeable, that wasn't reason enough for Raven to lend him the Third Divine Key.
"No? That's a shame. I actually find this Third Divine Key quite appealing," Chen Luo expressed some disappointment but didn't dwell on it.
"..." Raven remained silent.
Another reason Raven was unwilling to let Chen Luo see the Third Divine Key was that her weapon seemed to quite like him.
The Third Divine Key was a weapon that heavily emphasized compatibility.
What if the Third Divine Key preferred Chen Luo once it was in his hands? What would Raven do then? Wouldn't that be utterly embarrassing?
Raven knew full well how powerful the Third Divine Key was.
Moreover, even though they were coexisting peacefully now, whether he would develop covetous thoughts upon learning its true power was a problem. So it was better to just refuse from the start.
"It's almost lunchtime. Want to go get some lunch?" Chen Luo suddenly invited Raven.
"Huh? Where would we go for lunch?" Raven was taken aback.
"I am an outworld traveler, after all. I naturally have my own ways of getting lunch. So, recommend me to World Serpent. I can definitely become an executive, and then World Serpent will definitely give you a huge bonus," Chen Luo looked at Raven expectantly.
"No," Raven still refused.
"Alright then," Chen Luo sighed, then summoned the bar.
"Wait, what about the children?"
"This is a bar. How can I let children in? I'll just pack something for them later," Chen Luo waved dismissively and entered the bar.
After hearing Chen Luo's explanation, Raven thought for a moment, then followed him in.
Regardless, intelligence was a valuable commodity. Even though she had already given up on capturing Chen Luo, if she could provide relevant information, Jackal would probably still give her some bonus.
Thinking this, Raven stepped into the bar named "Midnight Bar."
"Hmm, the decor of this bar isn't bad." The moment she saw the bar, Raven judged it with a professional eye.
Raven had once run a bar herself and was quite skilled in management. It's just that her mixology and cooking skills were truly lacking, so the business started failing not long after it opened. After rejoining World Serpent later, she handed over that bar to them to manage as an intelligence outpost.
"So, would you like to eat first, drink first, or... eat me first?" Chen Luo said after walking behind the bar.
"...What era are these cheesy pick-up lines from? But this place is free, right?" Raven rolled her eyes at Chen Luo.
"Haha, just joking. You looked so guarded, so I wanted to lighten the mood. Don't worry, at least this time it's free. Order whatever you want to drink," Chen Luo said quite generously.
"Then I'll have the house special." Raven looked up, down, left, and right but couldn't find a menu or list of specials in this bar, so she just said that.
At the same time, she mentally labeled this bar as substandard. A shabby bar without even a drink menu was doomed to fail sooner or later.
Though, if it was just used as a travel tool, it wasn't bad.
[Ding! You have a new commission!]
"Alright, just a moment."
As expected of someone who used to run a bar—so cooperative. Easier to get commissions from than even Venti.
Chen Luo wasn't a machine. Asking him to slaughter zombies non-stop for 7 days straight—forget whether his body could handle it, his mind might break. So sometimes, he needed the bar to regulate his mood.
Perhaps it was an effect of the bar itself, but staying inside it allowed Chen Luo to quickly recover both physical and mental fatigue.
Of course, while recovering, Chen Luo didn't forget to grab a few commissions along the way.
Unfortunately, the other members and regulars were used to coming at night, so Chen Luo rarely got customers when he entered the bar during the day.
"Your drink... who did you learn your mixology from?" After tasting the drink, Raven's eyes widened slightly.
Good grief, if I had these mixology skills back then, why would I have returned to World Serpent? I'd have just run a bar until I died of old age!
The reason Raven returned to World Serpent was that they paid well. But if she had Chen Luo's mixology skills...
Raven could open from 9 PM to 11 PM, just two hours a day, limit it to 20 drinks, and dare to charge $1000 per glass.
If she could make a fortune daily, who would want to stay in World Serpent?
"Want to learn? I can teach you," Chen Luo said, looking at Raven.
Chen Luo's mixology skill was already at the Proficient level. Combined with the bar's buffs, it could reach Master level.
As for Raven, in Chen Luo's opinion, she was barely at the Beginner level, not even Skilled, let alone Proficient.
"Really... never mind." Raven shook her head.
Even if she left World Serpent now to open a bar, she probably wouldn't adapt well.
Of course, the most important thing was that Raven lacked a bit of confidence in her own mixology talent.
"If you ever stop traveling and decide to settle in this world, how about we open a bar together? I'll handle management, you handle the drinks. We split the profits 50-50?" However, Raven had a keen eye for making money.
"But the problem is, I already have a bar?" Chen Luo pointed around the bar.
"But you have no customers. Sure, you have plenty of gold, but do you plan to sit back and exhaust it?" Raven looked at Chen Luo with frustration, as if he were an underachiever.
"Emmm, don't say that. This bar does occasionally have customers."
"How many?"
"Emmm, less than 10?" Chen Luo sounded unsure.
At least the regulars were less than 10.
Venti, Eula, Mona, Theresa, Himeko, Mobius, Kiana, Mei, Bronya, Herrscher of Sentience, Yuyuko...
Plus occasional visitors like the little Jashin, Klein, etc.
"Wait, there are 10!" Chen Luo suddenly gained confidence.
"Then are there 20?" Raven asked again.
"No..."
"See? You can't even get 20 customers a day. What kind of bar are you running? Waiting for it to go bankrupt?" Raven tapped the bar counter with her finger.
"This... it probably won't go bankrupt, right?" Chen Luo figured his bar couldn't possibly go bankrupt no matter how much money it lost.
If nothing else, his bar didn't have to pay for utilities or rent.
"So, come work with me..." Raven said again.
"I never thought I'd be poached one day. But since you have such good taste, I agree. When I really decide to settle in this world and don't have a job, I'll come find you. Remember to save me a bartender position at your bar," Chen Luo said with some emotion.
"Now that's more like it. Oh, by the way, what kind of customers does this bar usually get?" Raven said idly while drinking.
"Emmm, what kind of customers..." Raven had really stumped Chen Luo with this one.
What kind of customers did he usually get?
A bard who drank all day and did no proper work.
An astrologist who had money but was almost starving from poverty.
A bitter-melon-juice-loving shorty who hadn't grown an inch in the past 40 years.
A grudge-holding knight who always talked about vengeance.
And... Mobius, who liked using others as lab rats.
Thinking of this, Chen Luo gave Raven a special look.
Raven should have met Mobius by now, right?
Chen Luo meant the Mobius memory.
I hope she can stay calm if she runs into Mobius in this bar later.
Or maybe just not let Raven in under non-special circumstances? Keep them on separate schedules?
As the bar owner, Chen Luo had that authority.
"Just some rather strange customers. All kinds. Those that fly in the sky, walk on the land, swim in the water."
"What kind of strange descriptions are those?"
"No, it's not strange. When you actually meet them, you'll know I'm not lying," Chen Luo shook his head.