The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 78: First Exchange

Gao Yang opened his eyes to find himself lying on a beach chair. Over his head was a palm tree with a dense enough canopy to shield most of the sunlight for him, and under his feet was a beach with soft, clean white sand. The sky was bright and the breeze pleasant. Extending before his eyes was a deep blue ocean, divided from the sky by a thin blurry line. There were a few seagulls flying in the blue backdrop.

Gao Yang knew this was a dream, but he still couldn’t help but be lost in the sight.

This was his first time seeing the ocean. It looked different from the one shown on TV. For one, the ocean on screen wasn’t as vast as the one before his very eyes.

“Do you like the setting this time?” asked the gentle voice of a woman.

Gao Yang looked to the side to find Liu Qingying sprawling on another beach chair of her own. The bikinis she wore left no parts of her voluptuous body to imagination. She had sunglasses on with her hair tied loosely up, and she was putting sunscreen on her flat abdomen with her delicate fingers.

During the day, Gao Yang took Wang Zikai to the barbecue place in the Walled City of Ten Dragons and had a cup of free plum drink. Came night, Liu Qingying visited him in his dream.

“Pretty good.” Gao Yang nodded before asking curiously, “Can you recreate any environment in your dream?”

“I can.” Liu Qingying chuckled. “But they have to be places I have been to in the real world so that I can put in all the details and make the dreams more realistic. The bedroom you dreamed about last time is foreign to me, so I had to let your subconscious fill in the blanks. That left a lot of flaws to be spotted. That was why I kept the light off. Darkness was the best cover for those flaws.”

“Ah.” Gao Yang picked up a glass of iced orange juice from the table beside him and took a sip. It tasted like the real thing.

After stretching his arms, he lay back down and enjoyed the sun and wind. It wasn’t until a while later that he said, “Shall we start our exchange?”

“Okay.” Liu Qingying had finished applying sunscreen. She lay down on her side facing Gao Yang, her seductive nature on full display, and her eyes were glinting alluringly. “Should I go first?”

“Be my guest.”

“Have you met Dragon in person since joining the Twelve Zodiac Signs?” asked Liu Qingying.

“No, I haven’t.”

Liu Qingying blinked bemusedly. “Among the members, only Dragon’s Talent is still kept a secret.”

Gao Yang’s eyes glinted. “You want to find out about his Talent?”

“Yes. No one knows what the top ten Talents are, and Dragon’s Talent must be among the top ten. If you ever learn of it, you may use it to make a deal with me.”

“I don’t think I will even if I get the information.” Such information must be top secret for the organization. Dragon was their ace. The organization could live or die depending on the secret. Gao Yang wasn’t stupid enough to trade it away to Liu Qingying.

“It’s fine. You’re free to seek me out when you’ve changed your mind.” Liu Qingying picked up a glass of calamondin and lemon tea and took a sip with the straw. “I heard that your organization acquired a Rune Circuit, and it’s of the Psyche type. Is that true?”

“Will the confirmation count as an intel?”

“Yes, a lower level one. On a scale of C, B, A, and S, it’ll be a B-class intel. I was requested to confirm the truth. They seem to be considering an exchange with your organization, but they are worried that the information may not be accurate.”

“Oh, that I can confirm for you. It’s the real deal. The Psyche Rune Circuit.” Gao Yang didn’t think there was a point in hiding that fact. The other organization would find out through a trade sooner or later.

“Alright. One B-class intel is worth 5 jinwu. Or you may ask me for intel of the same worth.”

“I want intel.”

“Regarding what?”

Gao Yang thought for a moment. “Something related to me personally.”

Liu Qingying took some time to think about it. “Would something about the Twelve Zodiac Signs work then?”

“Yes.”

Liu Qingying smiled. “I’d say this is an A-class intel, but to show you my goodwill, I’ll give it to you on discount.”

“Well, thanks.”

“In your organization,” Liu Qingying said with a perfect poker face, “There’s a spy from another faction.”

Gao Yang didn’t respond, but his heart skipped a beat.

“There’s a eighty percent chance that it’s true, and I don’t know who the spy is. That’s why the intel is an A-class one. If I’m a hundred percent sure, it would’ve been an S-class intel.”

“Are you...trying to plant distrust among us?” Gao Yang asked warily.

“There is no bad blood between me and the Twelve Zodiac Signs. What do I get for getting on your bad side?” Liu Qingying rested her hands on her thighs and shifted a little. “My business is built upon credibility. I have a reputation to keep in the field.”

Gao Yang felt a headache brewing. He had only joined the organization for a few days, yet he already had to keep an eye out for a spy. It was better to not know when learning about it would make him question every member he met. That would be detrimental to his bonding with his colleagues.

And should he report the possibility? If he knew and kept it to himself, he would get into trouble once he was found out. However, he didn’t have any evidence to back it up, and he couldn’t just tell the truth about Liu Qingying being the source of the information. Reporting it would get him into trouble too, and it would be immediate.

The intel was a can of worms he perhaps shouldn’t have opened!

“Alright, that’s the end of our deal,” Gao Yang said.

“It’s still early. We can talk about something else before you wake up, or we can do something else.” Liu Qingying stared at him with seductive eyes and an amused smile.

“Allow me to decline.” What he said could be used against him. It was better to be careful.

He closed his eyes and accessed the system.

...

It turned out that Liu Qingying was telling the truth.

The next day, the moment Gao Yang finished evening self-study and walked out of the school gates, he saw a familiar black Benz by the road. The door opened, and White Rabbit smiled with her eyes at him, her face covered by a pink mask. “Wanna get in and have a good time, handsome boy?”

Gao Yang looked around before diving into the car.

“Something comes up?” Gao Yang asked and scanned the car. The one driving was Heavenly Dog, while Wu Dahai was riding shotgun.

“Yeah, we’re on a mission.” White Rabbit seemed to be in a good mood.

Gao Yang was suddenly nervous. “What mission? Would it be dangerous?”

“Coward, what are you afraid of when you’re with me, your dependable senior?” Wu Dahai scoffed mockingly. “Don’t make us look bad when you’re part of the organization, yeah?”

Gao Yang played up the pity act. “But I’m a benchwarmer, and I’m quite weak. I may just drag you down...”

“Don’t worry. We ain’t fighting.” White Rabbit put an arm around Gao Yang’s shoulder. “We’re just going to the Walled City of Ten Dragons for an exchange of Rune Circuits. We bring you along to let you get some experience.”

Gao Yang’s eyes lit up. “A trade?”

“Yeah, it’s War Tiger’s doing. The Hundred Rivers Union would like to make an exchange for the Psyche Rune Circuit we got recently. Sister Songstress reached level 4 with her Requiem yesterday, and the Psyche Rune Circuit isn’t that useful to us for the moment.”

“Ah.” Gao Yang nodded. So the Hundred Rivers Union was the ones who wanted to trade with the Twelve Zodiac Signs, and they sought out Liu Qingying for confirmation.

For the past few days, Gao Yang had been looking into the factions of awakeners rather than wasting his time. The three most well-known righteous organizations in Li City were the Twelve Zodiac Signs, the Qilin Guild, and the Hundred Rivers Union.

The Twelve Zodiac Signs had the fewest members—each an elite in their own right—and kept a low profile.

The Qilin Guild kept their number of members somewhere around forty, and most were elite awakeners as well. They were the most powerful organization as a whole and had the greatest influence. They were to the world of awakeners what the martial alliance leader was to martial artists in wuxia stories.

As the name would suggest, the Hundred Rivers Union consisted of roughly a hundred awakeners. Most of the members were weaker awakeners with Talents near the bottom of the list. That was why they came together and formed an organization. The “Hundred Rivers” part of their name came from the idiom, ‘The ocean is the destination of a hundred rivers,’ which meant that even the smallest streams could come together to form an ocean if there were enough of them.

“So what do I do?” asked Gao Yang.

“Relax,” White Rabbit said, “And consider it a fun experience.”

Wu Dahai was looking at the rearview mirror and combing his hair. Today, his usual broom head had been left in a bowl cut. “Just keep your mouth shut and stay put as a background prop.”

Heavenly Dog, who had been fully focused on driving, chimed in, “Hello, Prop 1. I’m Prop 2.”

“Hello, hello. It’s a real honor.” Gao Yang played along.