Back when Jiang Qi was still scavenging for a living, he had more than once seen columns of thick smoke rising from somewhere deeper in the garbage mountain.
At first, he had no idea what it meant. Later, after asking other scavengers, he learned that it was probably someone burning a corpse.
In the Wasteland, death was nothing unusual.
Disease, murder, robbery by force...
Things like that played out across the Wasteland every single day, and correspondingly, the dead were never in short supply.
But perhaps because Deadwood Town was relatively peaceful, Jiang Qi had never personally witnessed death here. He had only heard that two or three scavengers seemed to have died this year.
In fact, Natuba's death was the first death Jiang Qi had ever personally witnessed since arriving in this world.
And yet, perhaps because Natuba had died so... intactly, Jiang Qi did not feel the severe nausea or terror he might have expected. Instead, he remained strangely calm from beginning to end.
Even as he watched Natuba's body burn atop a pyre made of deadwood and waste paper, the tension in Jiang Qi's face did not ease in the slightest.
The corpse had, more or less, been dealt with.
The place where Jiang Qi had burned it was not part of the area Deadwood Town's scavengers usually operated in. Even if he had simply dumped the body there, the people in town probably would not have discovered it.
Once it had burned down far enough, all he needed to do was find something to bury the remains under, and the Flying Crow Gang would have almost no chance of ever locating the corpse.
Then, as long as he made it back to his house before daybreak, presumably even when the town realized tomorrow that Natuba had vanished, the trail would not lead back to him.
But that did not mean he could rest easy now.
If anything, compared with the trouble still to come, the corpse was probably the easiest part to deal with.
Deadwood Town was simply too small.
So small that if the Flying Crow Gang decided to search every single house in town, it really would not be that difficult.
No matter what else he was, Natuba was still a minor leader. If White-Claw Crow became determined to investigate, he might very well have every home searched.
Jiang Qi had seen something similar happen before. Once, White-Claw Crow lost a very valuable shipment and immediately sent his men out to search house by house. In the end, they forcibly turned up the missing goods from a hidden compartment under a scavenger's bed.
Back then, Jiang Qi had not feared being searched. After all, he had basically owned nothing of value.
But now things were different.
If Glaxia's existence were discovered, the consequences would be catastrophic.
Thinking back to the peeping incident earlier, Jiang Qi also realized that he could no longer keep Glaxia in his home the way things currently were.
He already had an idea for what to do with her next.
But putting it into action would still require some prior preparation.
In any case, he first had to survive the crisis right in front of him.
Watching the flames dance before him, Jiang Qi quietly sank into thought.
First, he needed to hide Glaxia somewhere outside.
Along the route to the garbage mountain, there were a few spots that barely counted as recognizable terrain features. Gang members would never go there, while for scavengers they were nothing more than landmarks one might glance at in passing. No one ever lingered around them. That meant he should be able to hide Glaxia somewhere nearby, at least temporarily.
But just that alone wouldn't be enough...
Jiang Qi had no idea why Natuba had been wandering around near his house tonight, nor did he know whether anyone else knew where Natuba had gone.
And White-Claw Crow was not like other people. As the leader of the Flying Crow Gang, he had access to certain high-tech devices. Jiang Qi had no way of knowing whether White-Claw Crow might be able to trace things back to him somehow.
But one thing was certain:
If a minor gang leader died inexplicably right inside the gang's own stronghold, then as gang leader, White-Claw Crow would absolutely insist on finding some kind of answer.
Jiang Qi needed to prepare more than one plan.
Perhaps all those emergency measures and last-resort tricks he had quietly accumulated over time...
Perhaps it was finally time to start using them.
The next morning.
As usual, Jiang Qi went to the bookstore early and collected that day's batch of damaged cores.
There were especially many today—a full forty.
Old Homa said it was because Jiang Qi's skill at repairing damaged cores was so impressive that the gang had decided to allocate them an extra ten or so of the damaged cores collected from scavengers. They had even said that if Homa's workshop could continue to maintain this level of repair efficiency, the share allocated to them might be increased even further in the future.
It was obvious that Old Homa was very pleased. This extra gain was no small matter to him, and it was almost like finding money for free. The smile on his face had been noticeably more frequent than usual.
Naturally, since the rules themselves had not changed, this was also good news for Jiang Qi.
It meant the number of energy cores he could pocket each day would also rise.
And with a power-hungry monster sitting at home, Jiang Qi genuinely did need to stockpile more energy cores.
That morning, Jiang Qi stayed in the workshop the entire time.
He had already hidden Glaxia outside during the night, so there was nothing to do back at home. He therefore simply put on the appearance of a diligent apprentice and busied himself with tidying and cleaning around the workshop.
Near noon, Jiang Qi made a trip to the power station and fully charged all the repaired energy cores.
After bringing the freshly charged cores home, he headed to the restaurant, where he ate lunch together with Old Homa, Bauer, and a few of the other gang mechanics.
Today's lunch included a special menu item.
Apparently the gang's hunting team had brought back two horn-camels, so there was freshly cooked braised horn-camel meat available at lunch.
That was a rare treat.
Practically everyone who had the rank to order the dish got themselves a large plate.
Jiang Qi was no exception.
But while he ate, his mind was elsewhere. His attention stayed trained on the conversations around him, straining to collect scraps of information from what people were saying.
Bit by bit, he did hear some people talking about Natuba.
The voices came from one of the tables where gang members had gathered. Someone said that they still hadn't found Natuba after half a day, and complained that ever since he had started frequently asking for leave some time ago, he had become more and more outrageous.
It was one thing to be late all the time and leave early, but now he had actually gone and disappeared altogether. At this rate, White-Claw Crow was sooner or later bound to deal with him personally.
From the sound of it, because Natuba had recently been vanishing so often already, no one had yet realized that he was, in fact, missing for real.
Hearing that, Jiang Qi's heart eased just a little.
But only a little.
Because he knew all it meant was that the inevitable explosion would come later.
When it did come, there would still be no avoiding it.
After taking a deep breath and steadying the unease in his chest, Jiang Qi silently finished his lunch.
Aside from the occasional scavenger casting envious glances his way, he attracted no extra attention.
Just when Jiang Qi was beginning to think that perhaps he might be able to get through the day like this, by around five in the afternoon, Deadwood Town finally descended into chaos.
White-Claw Crow's convoy had apparently gone out today to trade supplies with a nearby town's gang.
Natuba was originally supposed to go along on that run.
But when they failed to find him in the morning, White-Claw Crow assumed the fool was late again, flew into a rage on the spot, and ordered the convoy to leave without him. He had intended to deal with Natuba after they returned.
Then the convoy came back at four in the afternoon.
White-Claw Crow went looking for Natuba, ready to settle the score—
only to discover that the man was nowhere to be found.
Once people investigated more carefully, they found that ever since Natuba had left the gang's activity room by himself the previous night, no one had seen him again.
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 135)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 110)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter67)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter85)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 60
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 65
From Junkman to Wasteland 50
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 35
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 40
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 37
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