A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 238 CST Wednesday UTC+8: 2 PM
The radio, riddled with bullet holes, emitted white smoke. Mr. Q seemed to want to say something, but only a static-like hum could be heard.

The door to the telephone booth, which had descended to the center of the cabin, suddenly opened.

The dark fishing boats were illuminated by neon lights, and the ringing of a telephone suddenly rang out on the dark sea before dawn, eerily frightening like something out of a horror movie.

After ringing for a while, the telephone receiver fell off with a snap and landed in the phone booth, still connected to the telephone line.

Mr. Q's voice rang out again, but this time it was much clearer than the old radio in the cabin—it was a completely electronic synthesized voice, with even the tone and pitch perfectly consistent, making it impossible to tell whether it was a man or a woman.

"You'd rather break your oath than cooperate?"

Mr. Q didn't seem annoyed.

It's hard to imagine that a telephone handset could produce such a loud sound; the telephone line is practically connected to a subwoofer.

"Even if I break my oath, what loss will the sun god suffer?"

Quinn gave a rather nonchalant compliment to the sun.

Amamiya Nene countered, "It was he who broke the vow, not me. Being a bystander doesn't count as deceiving the goddess."

There was a long silence inside the phone booth.

"Don't you believe in the sun? Or do you have no faith at all?"

“Believe it or not, there’s nothing you can’t believe,” Quinn said as he restarted the fishing boat’s engine, intending to bring the strange phone booth back to shore.

"So, there's no room for negotiation then?" Mr. Q asked curiously. "Aren't you afraid I'll ruin things and leave you both stranded in the Abyss?"

“If you can do that, then there’s no need to talk to us about cooperation.” Quinn turned the ship around, and in the distance, fishing boats could be seen setting sail at dawn from the harbor.

"Ah."

Mr. Q smiled.

The voice in the phone booth was no longer the steady electronic tone. Although it was still impossible to tell whether it was male or female, it was as if the electronic voice had been switched to a voice changer, adding a touch of sarcastic human warmth.

"Quinn, I look forward to the day we officially meet."

"Will that be my death day?" Quinn asked nonchalantly.

The phone booth floated up, looking down at the small fishing boat from above.

"You should leave alive first, then we can talk about it."

Quinn's brow twitched.

He shoved the little parrot into his arms as fast as he could, protecting it tightly. She was about to curse him as a pervert when the deafening sound of an explosion crashed down upon them—

She felt herself being lifted into the air; it must have been Quinn who jumped. Then he was thrown into the air by the shockwave from the exploding fishing boat, experiencing a dizzying, weightless sensation, and then he fell into the sea with a splash.

Quinn protected her well; she only got a few feathers wet from start to finish. When she resurfaced, the fishing boat had been reduced to scattered debris, and flames were burning fiercely on the oil slick on the sea surface.

Amamiya Nene stood on Quinn's head as he dove around, listening to him say, "...The fuel tank exploded."

"What is a fuel tank?" Amamiya Nene flew up and looked around; the blue telephone booth had vanished without a trace.

"It's like the magic crystal furnace of an airship."

"Wow, you're pretty resilient."

"It's not that powerful, just diesel fuel." Quinn jumped just before the explosion, avoiding a large portion of the flames. However, the back of his clothes was inevitably burned, and his skin felt a burning sensation, but his body would recover in less than a day.

Quinn checked the fuel before boarding the ship. As an assassin who would be alerted even by the presence of a fruit knife, he couldn't possibly be unaware of a hidden bomb.

"Rifles, mail, police equipment, radios, telephone booths, fishing boats."

"What are you muttering about?" Amamiya Nene asked.

“I’m thinking,” Quinn said thoughtfully, “that Mr. Q seems to know a lot about modern technology. Or… is his ability related to modern technology?”

Quinn looked around but couldn't find the policeman.

The explosion came too quickly; protecting Amamiya Nene was already a struggle, so he naturally couldn't look after anyone else.

That's just a mortal being, and I'm afraid it's more likely to be in grave danger.

Fortunately, this was a 'character' created by the Abyss, so Quinn didn't feel any guilt. After swimming around and not finding anyone, he prepared to leave.

"Let's go. The fishing boats should be leaving port by now. We're not far from the coastline, and with such a loud explosion, the coast guard is coming."

Quinn swam toward the city.

He learned swimming in college to get physical education credits, so his form wasn't exactly standard, but he was incredibly strong. In the Olympics, his speed would leave the runner-up in the dust.

Although it was a full five miles of sea, Quinn's stamina made swimming two round trips no problem. Amamiya Nene stood on Quinn's forehead, like Captain Black Parrot sailing the seas.

"We can't go into that phone booth; who knows where it'll take us? His words might not be true," Quinn explained as he swam. "I've been burned by Abyss Transcendents before, so..."

“I know.” Amamiya Nene watched a fishing boat pass by them, completely unaware of Quinn swimming like a swordfish.

"I promised to listen to you in the abyss."

“That guy knows me very well.” Quinn paused. “He knows I’m Sequence Seven, so he’s trying to negotiate with us.”

“But he confirmed my guess—there aren’t many Abyss Transcendents in this city, and the most powerful one seems to be that Sequence Six ‘Ms. B’. The direct combat power of Abyss Transcendents is not as good as that of Clerics.”

"Although they've put me under pressure, I should be able to handle it if I'm careful. Mr. Q understands that I have the ability to disrupt rituals, and they don't know how to deal with it, which is why they're trying to negotiate."

“We’ve been down here for three days. The academy’s trial will end in two days, and Lin and the teaching office should have already discovered that we’re missing. We might be able to get support before we surface at this depth.”

The little parrot looked at the man's black hair and his bald spot, and asked softly, "Then why not just agree to his request? We can leave once their ceremony is over, or wait for the academy's support. Wouldn't that be less risky?"

"Because any evil will be brought to justice."

"?"

“Ha, just kidding.” Quinn said calmly, “I don’t think that ritual is as simple as he makes it out to be. The reason why the Abyss Transcendents are considered heretics among heretics by the Cult is probably not just because of the Seven Deadly Sins.”

"Do you know that man?" she asked, pointing at Qin Weizheng.

"do not know."

After Quinn finished speaking, he was silent for a moment, then said:

“But now we know each other.”

"That's it."

Why did you step on my head?

"Turning the helm to left, Lady Amamiya Nene wants to see the sunrise. How beautiful! The sun in this world actually rises from below the horizon—wow, you lowly familiar, daring to splash me with water, I'll peck you!"

Quinn returned to his hotel before the first rooster crowed in the morning.

Bypassing the receptionist who was asleep at her desk, Quinn used the old Windows 95 computer to check the hotel's security camera footage. Apart from two passing guests on the same floor and a prostitute handing out flyers, no one had paid attention to his room.

After deleting the surveillance footage from the past few days, Quinn went back to his room and took a shower—he missed Earth's high-pressure showerhead even more than his cell phone. Although the academy had showerheads, they didn't have such a comfortable and gentle spray of water. When he lived in an apartment before, there was only a basin and a rag, and hot water had to be boiled on a stove.

Amamiya Nene wasn't surprised by this gadget; she'd used a high-pressure shower head her whole life, one of her father's amazing inventions. Around 9:30, the action team leader, Lan Naniu, knocked on the door.

Quinn pretended to have just woken up and greeted him with a good morning.

"Let's go, call Xiao Liu to go have breakfast—"

The two men went downstairs with Xiao Liu, who was still not fully sober and had bleary eyes from drinking, and then went together to the Jinlaicai Hotel to observe the suspect with the two police officers on duty.

"Was anything unusual last night?"

The two officers on duty exchanged a glance, and the more composed one hesitated before saying, "Last night, the computer crashed and restarted."

After hearing this, Lan Na Niu cursed, "This broken foreign gadget is restarting again? It's expensive and doesn't work well. If it's stuck, just tap it a couple of times. My TV is fine after tapping it a couple of times."

"The main problem is, boss. The officer you called in last night to keep watch for us left without a word. The computer restarted right when he left."

"Wait, what police officer?" Lan Na Niu asked in confusion, "You're all drunk, where would you get someone to replace you?"

"His surname is Chen."

The two were at a loss, and said blankly, "It's not that you think we're too pitiful and want us to go downstairs for some fresh air and a midnight snack."

"You stinky bastard—" Lan Na Niu cursed, "Playing cards in the air-conditioned room while keeping an eye on the suspect, what's so pitiful about that?!"

The two men remained silent after being scolded. When Lan Na Niu heard the surname 'Chen', he muttered, "Wasn't he supposed to be investigating the stolen Mercedes, Comrade Zhang? When did that brother leave last night?"

"I don't know, they've probably been gone for a long time," Quinn lamented silently.

"Hiss, did I say I wanted him to come and cover for me?"

“You seem to have said that.” Quinn fabricated something out of thin air.

"Really?" Lan Na Niu scratched his forehead. He had also drunk a lot last night and wasn't sure.

"Hey—the suspect is awake!" Xiao Liu, who had been watching the screen, reminded him.

Qin Weizheng indeed didn't remember what happened last night.

Once he was sober, he seemed perfectly normal, showing no signs of being a drug addict.

He first drained the overflowing water in the bathroom, took a shower to wash away the smell, and carefully used a plaster to cover the black sores under his ears. After tidying himself up, he opened the door, looked around to make sure no one was watching him, and then pressed the elevator button to go downstairs for breakfast.

Little did they know, all of this was captured clearly by the police cameras.

"The suspect is very cautious; this isn't the first time he's done something like this."

The police officer who had been monitoring him for several days said, "He would go to the front desk every day to ask if there were any seats available in the bridge gambling room upstairs. Although he asked, he didn't actually go there."

Xiao Liu asked in confusion, "Then why is he asking?"

“As long as the bridge gambling room is still open, it means the police haven’t come to raid it,” the officer explained. “This guy is cunning; look, he’s back now.”

Qin Wei only took five minutes to go downstairs and return. As if afraid that the cleaning staff would sneak into the room while he was away, he checked the "No Cleaning Required" sign repeatedly before entering.

Holding a packaged breakfast in her hand—custard buns and coconut cakes—Jianghai people have a sweet tooth, and her breakfast choices these past two days were exactly the same as Xiao Liu's.

At 11 a.m., Qin Weizheng's mobile phone rang. He quickly picked it up and didn't wait a second longer for the call to ring.

"Who hit him?" Lan Na Niu, who was getting a little sleepy, immediately perked up.

“His wife.” The police officer next to him yawned. “His wife calls him every day at noon without fail. He lied to his wife that he was on a business trip in Hong Kong, saying that he was acting as a translator for a big boss.”

Sure enough, Qin Wei's expression immediately became calm after he answered the phone. It was clear that he was a guy with little romantic sense, speaking to his wife in a very formal and serious manner.

"Yes, I ate it."

"Of course, don't worry about it."

"Oh, just let Dad talk. He doesn't understand anything, he just keeps rambling on and on. As long as he can make money, that's all that matters."

“I know, I will bring back the baby formula. It’s imported from the UK. The salesperson said that Queen Elizabeth’s children drink this brand.”

"Eh—~~"

Qin Weizheng's expression suddenly softened. He held the phone in one hand and gestured with the other.

He called out a name, but perhaps due to an unstable signal, none of the five people next door, including Quinn, could hear what Qin Wei was calling.

"Come on, call me Daddy—"

“ba~ba~”

"Eh!!!"

Qin Wei stood with one hand on his hip, facing the sea view from the balcony, laughing heartily, looking very pleased and happy.

"Tsk, with a father like that, this kid is really doomed." Lan Na Niu shook his head and sighed.

Quinn said calmly, "If his parents can raise him to be a college student, then even without his father, they could raise his son to be a college student. It's not a bad thing."

"A college student?"

Lan Na Niu took out a cigarette, and Xiao Liu, being very perceptive, lit it for him.

"My son is only in the first year of junior high, and he already doesn't want to go to school. Getting into university isn't that easy—"

These days, college graduates are still quite rare. Getting into college basically means you can find a good job in a big city, or become a civil servant in a small city, and you'll be highly sought after when it comes to finding a partner.

"What's his son's name?" Quinn suddenly asked.

The two officers in charge of surveillance were both taken aback. "We really don't recall that."

Xiao Liu scratched his head and said, "It's not mentioned in the information. Is it that important?"

Quinn shrugged. "It doesn't matter."

He felt a sparrow peck at him lightly from under the brim of his hat, so he mischievously pulled the hat up to suffocate it, and they almost got into a fight where no one else could see.

At 2 p.m., Lan Na Niu received a phone call, and then nodded solemnly to Quinn.

"The coast guard is ready; they'll use radar to keep watch for us, and they'll notify us if any Vietnamese people try to smuggle themselves in."

Quinn asked, "So it seems the trading hours remain unchanged?"

"Yes, at 1 a.m. tomorrow, at the fishing port pier."

Quinn took a deep breath, stared at the man in the surveillance video, and flashed a bright smile:

"I didn't ask you to never make a mistake. I'm not a devil."

"But what do you mean by secretly selling drugs? What's wrong with your values? You're only thirty-one, right? If you keep going like this, you'll be openly selling drugs when you're sixty-two, and smashing doors to sell them when you're ninety-three. In the end, you'll become like Great Britain. As a successor to socialism, I might have to defeat you. Really."

The four exclaimed that he had a very high level of awareness.

(End of this chapter)