Chapter 234: Chapter 234

Time rewound to 72 hours earlier.

Chen Ke, Sam, and Gina stepped out of the hospital and stood at the entrance, preparing to say goodbye. Chen Ke asked the two about their plans for the future.

Sam wasn’t originally from Opportunity City, having come in recent days to see if he could leverage his military career to land an investigator job at Spiritual Business.

However, after the events he had gone through, he was now wavering. A normal person’s mind, facing those monsters or merely trapped in such an odd world, was enough to cause a breakdown. Sam felt he was better suited to fight in familiar places rather than in the bizarre Otherworld.

Moreover, the ashen cloud of dread loomed over his head, suspecting that in the next second, he might just turn to dust… The constant feeling of impending death was incredibly irritating, and with that state of mind, Sam couldn’t commit himself to any job.

“I don’t know what I should do now. Maybe I’ll take a long break. I have enough savings to keep me going… I can just wait it out…” Sam said, his tone slightly embarrassed.

Chen Ke knew what Sam was waiting for, waiting for him to find a cure for the Ashen syndrome. Though Chen Ke also wished to help, he couldn’t make any promises…

The Ashen syndrome suddenly made Chen Ke think of Fan Hede’s Black Ring terminal illness. Although he had forgotten what the disease turned people into, it was, after all, another incurable illness.

Gina bore a much lighter mental burden. Despite her suspicion that she might also turn ashen, that was only a suspicion. She had completely extracted herself from the incident. To her, everything had come to an end.

But Gina didn’t seem ready to sever ties with Chen Ke and Sam just like that. She took Sam and Chen Ke’s contact information and promised to leverage her own connections to search for a cure to the Ashen syndrome, albeit with not much hope.

“I suggest you live a bit more like a ‘Buddha’ in the coming days…” Chen Ke told Sam.

“Of course, I’ll probably just lie in bed, sleep, and play on my phone… Chen Ke, although it doesn’t make sense… but… I’m counting on you now…” Sam said.

Chen Ke nodded but made no promises. He wouldn’t commit to something he wasn’t certain he could deliver.

And so, the two said their farewells to Chen Ke and each took a ride home.

As for Chen Ke, he still had many things to take care of.

The two guys he brought back from the 2006 timeline were temporarily staying at his place, clearly not a long-term solution.

The fewer people who knew about Chen Ke’s identity and the things he had to do, the better. It was just that they had nowhere else to go, and as the person who fished them out, Chen Ke had to provide them a foothold in this world for now. They would need to plan for their future on their own eventually.

On the other hand, now that Diana had learned of his rental hideout, Chen Ke had to move… It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Diana, but firstly, Diana had made her stance clear, the Administration Bureau might trace him here, and furthermore, Yasla had long known his residence. Now with two extra ordinary people in the house, any day Chen Ke might cause their abrupt death inside the room.

Lastly, interpersonal relationships… he had to reply to each one and alleviate their unilateral anxieties. Pihom might be easier to deal with, but would Lester think he’d abandoned his duties and run off? This concerned his professional reputation in the Assassin industry.

Whether it was to interact with organizations on a Transcendent level or to earn money, the relationship with Lester’s branch needed to be well maintained. Even with a life reserve for a bit over a week, he shouldn’t be careless.

He decided to go back to his rental first to see what the two men planned to do, then immediately move to a nearby hotel to take a break, and then change clothes and contact Pihom and Lester…

Chen Ke suddenly remembered, the first target he needed to assassinate would appear in the Holy Oak villa district around 11 PM tonight.

It was already 1 PM; time was pressing… He had to change his clothes first, the blue suit jacket still stained with the sweat and blood from Diana.

Chen Ke hailed a taxi and rushed to his place. On the way, he contacted Lester first.

“Ah, Chen Ke! Where have you been these past two days? I couldn’t reach you at all,” Lester’s tone remained unchanged, and he didn’t sound upset, but Chen Ke knew, as an assassin, if an employer can’t get in touch, the consequences are grave.

“I had some personal grudges to deal with… You know how it is, people like us are bound to have enemies…” Chen Ke said.

“Uh-huh… I understand… I hope you’ve sorted everything out. It won’t affect tonight’s mission, will it?” Lester asked.

“No, mission will be accomplished,” Chen Ke replied.

Lester smiled satisfactorily and didn’t say anything more.

“Can you arrange for someone to deliver my suit… and then, I also need to have another suit cleaned…” Chen Ke said.

“No problem, it’ll be delivered within an hour,” Lester said with a smile.

Chen Ke hung up the phone, checked his messages briefly in the car, and then arrived at the apartment building he was renting.

He hurried upstairs and, upon opening the door, found Rama pacing around the room while Louis was examining the Glock on the bed.

“Hey… that’s a real gun,” Chen Ke cautioned.

Louis set the gun down on the bed and chuckled awkwardly. Rama looked perplexed and shifted his gaze from the window back to Chen Ke.

“Gentlemen, your name is… Rama? And you, you’re Louis? Right?” Chen Ke asked as he pulled out a chair to sit down.

Both men nodded.

“There are some things I need to make clear with you… You need to be mentally prepared,” Chen Ke said slowly.

They looked at each other, and Louis offered an eager smile.

“Let me put it this way… even though you’ve escaped that world… As I’ve said before, there’s still a chance you could turn to ashes, so… Now I’d like to hear your plans, what were you doing over there before?” Chen Ke inquired.

Rama looked at Louis, who seemed less articulate.

“It’s a long story,” Louis said, sitting on the bed and continuing.

“Well, let’s hear it then,” Chen Ke said, as there was still some time before Lester’s men arrived with the clothes.

“It all started that morning. Rama and I didn’t know each other before, and if it weren’t for what happened that day, we might never have met in our lifetimes. You know, sometimes destiny has a funny way of working things out. One of us lived in the east of the city, the other in the west, our jobs were completely different, our hobbies, skin colors, social circles didn’t align, but somehow we met. Sometimes destiny is just that mysterious. Who knows, maybe I’ll become great friends with Rama or maybe… all this is just a coincidence…” Louis rambled on.

“Wait… wait… you’re talking about after the catastrophe over there, right…? What I want to know is, before, when things were still normal there, what did you do…?” Chen Ke interjected.

“Oh! You mean my career history! I get it, I get it… I’ve had many jobs, but none for too long. Those bosses always had plenty of reasons to fire me. There was a pizza shop in Carefree City where I used to work, but one day I encountered someone who wanted to dine and dash. The manager wanted me to deal with it, so I went over and said, ‘Hey, buddy, pizzas need to be paid for!’ and he told me, ‘Pay your mom, eat shit!’ Then I told the manager that the guy sent him to eat shit, and the manager told me not to come in for work the next day…” Louis explained.

“Stop… stop… I get it… What about you, Rama… What did you do?” Chen Ke had enough of Louis’s ramblings and turned to Rama.

“The day it all happened was the day I had just gotten out; I always thought it was God’s punishment for me,” Rama, a Black man, spoke as if he were singing R&B.

“Alright…” Chen Ke sighed. Both of these guys were a bit off…