Back at the hotel, Annan shut the window and opened her Book of Gospel, praying for a Silence Barrier miracle to prevent eavesdropping.
Only after preparing jasmine tea for everyone did Banjie speak slowly. "Driving a hovercar along the sky expressway, I can make a round trip between Nabistin and Fanmula in eighteen hours. As long as I say Lisi is the child you and Mr. Yaxiu adore most, Madam Qinna will take good care of her."
One could tell he had weighed these words countlessly on the way back; they sounded well-reasoned and thoroughly persuasive.
Lisi, who had been looking into a hand mirror, jerked her head up. Just as she was about to speak, Yaxiu popped a piece of chocolate into her mouth and began rhythmically kneading her shoulders. Although she desperately wanted to throw a tantrum, being pampered by Yaxiu like this made her foul mood instantly melt away like the chocolate on her tongue.
The blue-haired butler placed a briefcase onto the table. "'Beauty's Wardrobe' is our only spatial item. Inside are stored various weapons, clothing, food, and emergency transport, allowing us to respond to any contingency... Harvey's coffin must also be kept inside it."
"Alice doesn't necessarily have to sleep in a coffin," Harvey suddenly interjected. "He can disguise himself as a normal person, complete with breathing, body temperature, and the ability to speak. If necessary, he can act alongside us..."
The young butler gave him a look, and the necromancer obediently shut his mouth, zoning out with an unlit cigarette dangling from his lips.
"Though it might sound excessively arrogant of me to say this," Banjie said, "unless you suddenly advance to Sanctuary... and even after you do advance to Sanctuary, I remain the Funeral Agency's strongest combat sorcerer. Thanks to this body that never ages, I have never fallen from my prime."
"I've never doubted that." Annan flicked her earring lightly and smiled. "Banjie, you've held third place on the Two Wings Ice Sorcery Board for eight consecutive years... When I ran away from home, if you hadn't secretly helped me multiple times, I would have been bullied long ago."
As if recalling the past, the corners of Banjie's lips curled up slightly. "Not at all. Even back then, Miss, you were brimming with leadership charisma. Wherever you went, you would meet companions willing to help or even be fond of you, such as Miss Cleios, Miss Silimolo, Miss Evalin... You were just a bit naughty at times."
Yaxiu and the others listened dumbfounded—keep in mind that Gospel was a society ruled by law with exceptional public order. Causing trouble under those conditions to the point where Banjie had to step in and fix things could hardly be described by a kindergarten-level word like "naughty," could it?
"I was a bit ignorant in my younger days." Annan was shameless about it. "Still, a big reason I dared to be so reckless back then was because I knew that if anything happened to me, you would definitely come to my rescue, Banjie."
"Rather than saying I was young, it's more accurate to say I was a kindergarten kid." The Purple Moth sat cross-legged on the bed, swaying back and forth, her eyes narrowed in a smile. "Causing trouble every day and making the grown-ups come clean up the mess.
"People, once they have someone to rely on, remain children who always need an adult to come pick them up."
Annan lowered her head, her hair veiling her face so that her expression was obscured. "But I'm not a child anymore, and I can't be one ever again."
With that, the Purple Moth looked toward the swindler. The latter flipped open his Book of Gospel and said, "Based on the Mermaid's intelligence, combined with the information I gathered yesterday, I've confirmed that our best chance of entering the imperial palace—the one and only chance—is the 'Court Banquet' held on the day the Gospel Board is announced.
"On that day, powerful figures and corporate conglomerate families across Gospel will send representatives to attend the banquet, awaiting the birth of the new empress. For a banquet of such high caliber, surveillance will certainly be exceedingly strict, but with so many guests of mixed backgrounds, it is already the only loophole we can exploit... Although in my view, this plan is no different from volunteering to become Harvey's experimental material, it's still slightly more realistic than storming the palace by force."
"I'll find a way to 'borrow' a few guests' identities on that day," Annan said. "There's no need to keep the Doran family's years of accumulated Gospel points anymore."
"Even if we manage to get inside the palace, there's another crucial problem," Igola said. "That banquet is meant to celebrate the Gospel Board and witness the succession of the empress. In other words, within the few hours from the start of the banquet to its end, the Gospel Board will be published. We must achieve our objective in that timeframe—assassinating the princess who is about to become the next empress, right under the heavy protection of the court.
"One and only chance, one and only window of a few hours."
Harvey said, "Sounds like an absurd plan."
"Precisely." The swindler spread his hands. "A plan that even Harvey thinks is absurd—I don't think there's a more accurate description. Setting aside what happens if we fail, even if we succeed and the First Gospel is indeed rendered void, will the divine wish be immediately bestowed upon you, Eldest Miss? Will you even have the chance to make a wish? And since you can only make a single wish, can it truly solve every problem?"
Annan glanced at Igola. "If it were you, would you give up after coming this far?"
"...No."
"Although our backgrounds, genders, and personalities are different, and almost everything about us differs aside from some possible overlap in tastes, you and I are the same kind of person," Annan said. "The kind of person who keeps their life only to wager it as a chip on the gambling table when the time comes."
Igola said, "I'm not that kind anymore."
"If it's that dangerous, all the more reason I should stay!" Banjie said urgently. "Whether in logistics or combat, I can definitely help you—"
"Before assassinating the princess, we need to explore the terrain of the surface city as temporary staff, and even map out the interior of the imperial palace through visual estimation." Annan didn't answer Banjie directly, continuing instead, "In other words, we have to work temporary jobs for the next few days."
"Working again?" Harvey couldn't help complaining. "Don't tell me I have to move bricks again?"
"Rest assured, not only will you not have to move bricks, you won't even retain any memory of working," Igola said. "You'll just feel like you clocked in and immediately clocked out with your pay in hand."
Yaxiu asked in surprise, "There's such a good deal?"
"Didn't you notice back at Happy World that whenever you had any need, nearby staff members would attend to it before you even asked?" Igola said. "And not just in Happy World. Anywhere in the underground city, any worker you run into can preemptively satisfy your needs."
Yaxiu and the others were taken aback for a moment, then recalled that they really had barely spoken when outside these past few days. Whether shopping or anything else, before they could even open their mouths, hotel staff would instantly appear before them to provide help—so much so that Yaxiu hadn't gotten much chance to practice with his Substitute over the past two days.
It wasn't that they hadn't wondered about it, but while questioning someone about 'why their service attitude is so bad' was reasonable, questioning someone about 'why their service attitude is so good' would seem utterly bizarre. So they had let it drop—as they'd thought before, they were only passing through the underground city and didn't care about the stories here.
Yet now, they seemed poised to become part of that story.
Igola said, "That is because during work hours, they remain continuously in a state of 'Revelation.'"
Yaxiu tilted his head alongside Lisi. "Wait, I remember 'Revelation' can only last five minutes per hour, right? They can't possibly work only five minutes every hour?"
"'Personal Revelation' is five minutes per hour, but 'Work Revelation' is different," Igola said. "Nabistin's work system is fundamentally different from elsewhere. Simply put, once you meet the basic requirements of the job, you can sign a work contract. During work hours, you remain in 'Work Revelation' throughout, needing no thought whatsoever, able to rely on pure intuition to accomplish all tasks with your coworkers at peak efficiency."
"I've never experienced Revelation. Telling me this doesn't help me understand."
"The games you play have tutorials and quest markers, don't they?" Igola said. "'Work Revelation' is like an in-game prompt telling you what to do every single second. To you, the entire world is made up of highly specific tasks. You don't need any subjective initiative—you just need to turn like a cog."
"It's that easy?"
"Not easy at all," Igola said earnestly. "Because you have to remain wholeheartedly dedicated to the work the entire time, 'Work Revelation' is said to be an agonizing experience. You could even say that while working, you aren't yourself—you're just an instrument translating the Revelation."
Surprised, Yaxiu said, "Then why would anyone be willing to accept 'Work Revelation'?"
"Because the memories can be deleted."
"Huh?"
"Didn't I just say? If we take a job, our direct experience will be that one second we're about to start work, and the next second we've clocked off with money in our hands," Igola said. "Because 'Work Revelation' completely dominates our minds the entire time, things like 'work experience' simply don't exist in Nabistin. The memories of that working period are meaningless to us. Thus, a brand-new way of working quickly became mainstream in Nabistin—
"As long as the work memories are erased, for the worker, earning wages is as simple as blinking an eye. People named it the 'Gospel Worker System.' The underground city's orderly production, entertainment services, and even public security all rely on this system to prosper to this extent, rivaling even other tier-one cities supported by royalty.
"What an ingenious system. On this point alone, Nabistin truly deserves its title as imperial capital." The swindler sighed, his voice sounding genuinely filled with admiration. "Fanmula uses white mist to deceive citizens' senses, tricking them into mistaking physiological pleasure for enthusiasm for labor; Mengfeila forces citizens to work hard overtime by dominating their subconscious, essentially using miracles to wear down their indolence.
"Even top-tier cities with the highest productivity like Fanmula and Mengfeila only manage to minimize their citizens' distaste for work. After all, without poisons and brainwashing, who would willingly subject themselves to the misery of going to work?"
Yaxiu nodded repeatedly, resonating deeply with this sentiment. Lisi reached over and patted his head.
"Yet here in Nabistin, that has been completely inverted. Everyone works voluntarily—eagerly, even. To them, work is merely a shift on the clock, after which they get paid. That money is practically free."
Yaxiu couldn't help yearning for it too. It had to be said that this feature of Nabistin was vastly superior to Fanmula and Mengfeila. Hearing about it made him want to settle down in Nabistin... Blood Moon? What Blood Moon? What on earth is that? Never heard of it, don't ever bring it up again—I wouldn't want Nabistin to be displeased.
No wonder people were willing to be "Nabistin drifters" even while living in the sunless underground. Yaxiu had thought they were exceptionally diligent and hardworking, but it turned out every last one of them might be lazier than him—at least Yaxiu still had to expend sorcery power to summon his Substitute, whereas they just signed a contract, blinked, and got their paycheck. Measured by actual working effort, Yaxiu could probably rank in the top ten in the underground city.
Chapter 449