Xin glanced at the girl beside her and frowned.
"She's stupid, and you're just as dumb?"
"Do you think that guy is some object you can just hand around and decide the ownership of however you like?"
"Even now, no one's figured out why the Cretan Hollow vanished. The Fire Picker may have shown up, but he's still hidden in the crowd, his whereabouts unknown."
"A whole bunch of people are just asking to die."
Hearing Xin's words, the bun-haired girl pouted after being scolded.
But her mood shifted quickly—she turned back with a grin and asked curiously,
"What were you two talking about in there? Come on, tell me?"
Xin didn't hide anything and gave her a brief summary.
"Ugh, the way you tell it... that woman actually sounds kind of friendly..."
"Friendly? Ha. She's just scheming, putting on a show. They're all the same..."
"Sigh... this is such a pain."
The girl sighed dramatically.
"Aren't you worried that if you go too far, the Fire Picker might end up completely turning against New Eridu?"
"He won't drag New Eridu into it. Whoever crosses him will deal with the consequences themselves."
Xin didn't pay much attention to her friend's concerns. She shook her head and spoke softly.
"You're that confident?"
"It's not my confidence—it's faith in the Professor."
"That guy had it right. The Fire Picker was supposed to be a god—a being the world created to purge its own sickness."
"If that were still the case, yeah, I'd be worried."
"I might have ended up like the others, seeing him as a threat that needed to be eliminated."
"But the Professor made him the spark of humanity."
Xin's gaze was sharp and bright.
Strip away his divinity—give him humanity.
That's what the one she had never met but deeply admired had done.
The path of humanity's salvation branched out like a great tree: the upper ranks of the Defense Force, the outer factions of New Eridu, the White Star Institute, the Hollow syndicates, the City Builders, the Seon...
And the one the Professor left behind was the strongest branch.
...
Inside the Special Task Force's conference room.
"So the official report and public explanation is that a batch of high-concentration Ether explosives went off accidentally?"
Hearing Qingyi say that, Zane raised his eyebrows.
No wonder the explosion had felt much stronger than expected—it made sense now.
But that was fine. It wouldn't tie back to him.
Even people who had been there at the time would probably think he'd just triggered it—that the real cause was those Ether explosives.
Between Ether bombs and something one guy did, the former just sounded more plausible. By a long shot.
"Yeah, but I don't think it's that simple..."
Qingyi waved the report she held, glancing at Zane with a small smile.
"Don't you think so, Fire Picker?"
"Uh... can we not joke about that, Senior...?"
Zhu Yuan, sitting nearby, looked at Zane with growing curiosity.
"So, Zane, what did you actually do?"
"Don't worry. There's already a solid official explanation. We're not reporting anything—we're just curious."
Zane didn't intend to hide it. It wasn't exactly top-secret.
"It's pretty simple, really."
Seeing that Qingyi was also watching him with interest, Zane took a moment to organize his words.
"After dealing with the Ether, I figured I'd buy some tea for you all from the black market. But a few guys picked a fight."
"I dealt with them, but then two more showed up. Panta even got hurt."
Qingyi nodded along as he explained.
"Didn't know you were so considerate. Then what? You blew it all up for revenge? Or did the fight trigger the explosives?"
"That's it. Nothing more."
"I tried out a new move, and it ended up blowing up the underground black market. Those Ether bombs just happened to get caught up in the blast and made it worse."
"You're saying the explosion wasn't caused by the high-concentration Ether, but by your new technique?"
Qingyi looked surprised. Zane nodded earnestly.
Zhu Yuan, on the other hand, had gone silent in thought.
Blowing up the black market with a move... triggering a Hollow anomaly people were calling the White Hollow?
Zane had no reason to lie. And if he really was the Fire Picker... it didn't seem impossible.
After slowly digesting that, Zhu Yuan looked up—and saw Qingyi already leaning in close to Zane.
"Good disciple, you didn't take today's incident to heart, did you?"
"Applying medicine for you was really hard work!"
"No, Senior..."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Good..."
Qingyi let out a breath of relief, patting her chest. Then her expression turned serious as she warned him,
"Zane, you'd better remember—you're my good disciple. Don't go pulling any heaven-defying, master-betraying, ancestor-destroying nonsense, got it?"
"...Huh?"
...
At the entrance to the Public Security Bureau.
"Huh? Zane? You're just leaving now?"
Seth stretched out after work, turned around, and spotted Zane walking out of the bureau. His eyes lit up as he jogged over.
"Hehe, you hungry? Want to grab something good to eat? My treat!"
In Seth's eyes, even though they hadn't hung out much, Zane's vibe really clicked with his. As far as he was concerned, they were already friends.
As Seth came up beside him, Zane smiled, draped an arm around his shoulder, and said,
"Let's put dinner on hold for a second. That thing you mentioned earlier..."
"What? Oh! You mean the Fire Picker!"
Seth blinked, then instantly snapped to attention. His ears perked up as he said,
"Zane, I knew you agreed with me."
"The Fire Picker is totally dangerous..."
"Actually... Seth, don't you think the Fire Picker might have a lot of good sides too? As far as I know, he hasn't really done anything evil..."
"Good sides? That guy? Come on..."
Seth waved his hand dismissively. The Fire Picker hadn't done anything wrong? Please. He—
Then suddenly, Seth shivered.
Why was it cold all of a sudden?
He wasn't even underdressed today. He was usually really careful not to get sick and mess up work. Was the weather changing?
He glanced at Zane, thought for a moment, and said,
"Well... I guess if I'm being fair, the Fire Picker probably does have some good qualities. He seemed relatively decent at the time."
"Maybe... maybe I could even talk him into coming back to the right path..."
"See? That's more like it..."
Zane released his shoulder and gave him a little wave.
"Well, I've got some stuff to do. Let's skip dinner. I'll catch you later."