Vill-V nodded. "To be precise, we haven't seen a single minor."
Hearing Hua's words, Grandma Tao froze for a moment. A sorrowful smile appeared on her face. "The children... they've all gone to Heliopolis to enjoy themselves. Sigh... who knows when they'll come back."
"Heliopolis Life Sciences even helps take care of children?" Hua frowned in confusion. She didn't believe that pharmaceutical company would be so generous.
"I'm worried something may have already happened to those children."
"There are rumors, like how certain places once killed children to extract adrenal red fluid from them."
"Even if it's just hearsay, it doesn't change the fact that children possess immense value—enough to tempt certain people."
"Especially a pharmaceutical company like Heliopolis Life Sciences."
But Grandma Tao shook her head. "It's fine. The children are well taken care of. Every month... they even call us. There are lots of friends there, and they're very happy."
"Is that so..."
The suspicion in Hua's eyes did not fade.
She glanced at Vill-V and noticed the shadow clouding her gaze.
This was the first time Hua had seen Vill-V wear such a serious expression.
Was she, like her, worried about the children's safety?
No. Right now, Vill-V should be Conductor. She wasn't the gentle and kind Id.
If she was this cautious, it could only mean that whatever Heliopolis Life Sciences was doing by gathering so many children was far from simple.
Leaving the kindergarten, they were greeted by rows of towering apartment buildings.
The elevator shafts had long since broken down and had been repurposed into garbage chutes.
Residents moved up and down using filthy, uneven staircases.
It was said that buildings above six floors were required to install elevators, but since using them required payment, they had fallen into disuse and eventually broke down.
The stairways bore numerous signs of repair, and even bullet holes could be seen.
By the time they climbed to the old woman's residence on the 21st floor, Vill-V was already too exhausted to straighten her back.
"I should never have tried to experience an old lady's daily life on a whim."
What kind of elderly life was this? Climbing 21 floors every day—how did she even manage it?
Was she really an old lady?
Hua, on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed as she set the supplies down at the entrance.
"Do you... usually go up and down like this?"
"Oh my, when I buy things like this normally, I have to make three trips."
Originally, the old woman hadn't planned to buy so much, but Vill-V had kept encouraging her to get whatever she wanted, since the two of them could carry it.
"Wait here a moment, young ones. I'm going to visit Madam Ma and ask her to pray for your safety."
After setting down the items, the old woman headed straight for the emergency staircase at the back of the building.
"Madam Ma?" Hua's expression turned strange. The name alone sounded unreliable, clearly something related to superstition.
The stationed coach followed as well. Being a cautious person, he wanted to observe whether the two brought by Grandma Tao were informants for a gang.
Vill-V noticed that the man wasn't wearing an ordinary jacket.
From various details, it looked like a pilot suit—clothing designed to accommodate powered armor.
Wearing something so stifling in such heat... wouldn't he get heatstroke?
The coach took a drag from his cigarette, stayed silent for a while, then spoke to Hua and Vill-V. "You two, this is your first time here, right?"
"Madam Ma is very accurate. We've relied on her divination and healing to survive this long."
Vill-V sat cross-legged while drinking water. "Oh, divination? I can do that too."
The coach tapped the ash off his cigarette. "Heh, little girl, Madam Ma's divination isn't child's play like yours. She can even predict when gangs will show up."
"Hm?" The coach suddenly noticed that when he flicked the ash, he had somehow extinguished the cigarette entirely. Strange.
Vill-V asked in a probing tone, "Then... could she be part of the gang?"
"How could that be!" The middle-aged man immediately retorted angrily. "Madam Ma has helped Twilight Street avoid gang extortion so many times, and she even gives me cigarettes. How could she be part of a gang!"
"Heh, there are plenty of ways gangs collect money. Maybe that so-called shaman is the one collecting it for them. The residents here give her benefits and even thank her—killing two birds with one stone."
"A few packs of cigarettes are enough to win over someone on guard duty. Have you ever thought about how she even gets cigarettes—such a luxury—in a chaotic district like this?"
"Hmph. Suit yourselves."
Seeing that the conversation was going nowhere, the middle-aged man tossed the extinguished cigarette butt into a pile of mixed trash in the corridor and walked away with his hands in his pockets.
Seeing Vill-V arguing with the gatekeeper as soon as they entered, Hua tugged at her sleeve with concern. "Vill-V, when in Rome... there's no need to upset others over something like this."
"Hua, that uncle is a good person." Vill-V patted the back of Hua's hand. "He wants us to leave this place, so I made sure he wouldn't worry."
I didn't see how that made him not worry at all.
Following the direction of the cigarette butt unconsciously, Hua glanced at the trash pile where combustible and recyclable waste were mixed together.
Then her voice abruptly stopped.
"Vill-V... there are human bones hidden here."
"Mm, I know." Vill-V's expression remained calm. With her auxiliary vision device, she had already seen many skeletons on the way here.
Whether buried in ruins or stuffed in garbage bags.
"See? I told you that uncle was a good person. Even without saying anything, he was warning us to stay alert."
Then why not just leave?
The danger of this place made Hua uneasy.
No matter how much equipment Vill-V carried, at their core, they were still just two ordinary people.
Those weapons couldn't handle most forms of human malice—only a small fraction of situations.
If something really went wrong here, Vill-V wouldn't be able to fly them out, and Hua couldn't carry Vill-V—who weighed over two hundred kilograms with all her gear—while leaping across rooftops.
(The two hundred kilograms referred to the equipment Vill-V carried. Her actual body was quite light.)
Before Hua could think further, she felt something cool and soft against her lips.
Looking down, she saw a cold handkerchief pressed against them. Vill-V was moistening her lips.
"Hua, your lips are all cracked. Did you forget to drink water?"
"Ah... thank you." Seeing Vill-V being so considerate, Hua couldn't tell which version of her was in control right now.
Maybe she really was overthinking things?
The complicated thoughts made Hua blurt out, "Sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Vill-V tucked the handkerchief back into her waist pouch and casually took out a lipstick. "No need to apologize, Ah-Hua. Let me proudly introduce this Scholar-developed 'Enchantment Lipstick.' Its main feature is... mysterious moisturizing lip balm functionality."
She almost revealed its drugging properties.
Clearly, the one Hua needed to be wary of also included Miss Vill-V.