Chapter 66: Cooperation

“So, Copper Coin was the one who wanted you to leave the Mutual Aid Association the most back then?” Chen Fengshi took out his phone, ready to dial.

“She doesn’t have that ability; the key is that our views are completely opposite. As for the current President, his licking skills are outstanding, so he got her strong support—no joke, he really relied on licking.” Little An did not hide her contempt for the current President of the Mutual Aid Association.

Little An called the President, but no one answered, and then she called the Vice President Qingfeng, but still no one answered!

She felt something was wrong. She stopped Chen Fengshi from dialing and directly called Copper Coin, saying right away: “Come out and chat?”

The voice on the other end of the phone sounded a bit strange, but she straightforwardly gave a meeting place, and the time was right now.

Little An hung up the phone, looked at Chen Fengshi with an unusually heavy expression, and said: “It looks like something has happened.”

Yes, Chen Fengshi also realized it.

Their relationship was clearly bad, yet Copper Coin didn’t say a single word of nonsense and was so eager to meet, which meant something unusual must have happened.

“Let’s go together, and you can get to know her along the way.” Little An got on her motorcycle and led the way in front. When starting, she turned her head and asked him to confirm: “No problem riding by yourself?”

“The worst state has passed. I’m very calm right now, and I must get an explanation for Juzi.” Chen Fengshi hit the gas and started off. As he rode out, he examined himself over and over, becoming even more certain that his current condition was good.

The meeting place Little An and Copper Coin agreed on was the seaside park. On holidays, there would be many tourists riding bikes here, but at this hour, there were only a few scattered residents nearby taking a walk. There were very few people riding bikes. In the parking lot, you could only see a few scattered cars. If you excluded the cars that were still rocking after being parked, then there were even fewer people who actually came to have fun.

Copper Coin arrived earlier than them, driving a red Ferrari. As for the model, Chen Fengshi didn’t know and was too lazy to ask Little An.

The several connected parking areas around were all empty. In a place like this, it was convenient to talk.

After the motorcycle stopped, Little An took off her helmet and walked to the edge of the parking lot. Copper Coin pushed the door open and got out of the car, sizing Chen Fengshi up. Because he looked pleasing to the eye, she didn’t say anything to make things difficult.

But she was in a bad mood today and had no desire to flirt on purpose.

She was a few centimeters shorter than Little An, about 1.64 meters tall. She wore a short skirt as red as her car, paired with red high heels. It was unknown just how much she liked bright red colors.

She lit a cigarette, smoked it, and walked as if she were on a runway.

“A newcomer from the Demon Extermination Association?” Copper Coin still asked Chen Fengshi, and without waiting for Little An to answer, she added: “Little Huo and Alcohol are still alive, right?”

“Nonsense.” Little An had no patience for her temper. Finally, considering the need for possible necessary contact in the future, she briefly introduced Chen Fengshi. “Golden Blood, a partner of our association. Future cooperation and information exchange between our two sides will be helped by him.”

“…It seems there really is such a need.” Copper Coin exhaled a puff of smoke. Her mind was clearly heavy, and her eyes were dim. Her mature beauty and fiery outfit didn’t make her look any more energetic.

“What exactly happened? Neither of them answered their phones.” Little An didn’t beat around the bush; this was the reason they were meeting.

“I don’t know.” These three words came out of Copper Coin’s mouth, making people feel depressed and even angry.

What kind of answer was that?

But Little An didn’t get angry and asked again: “What’s the situation?”

“This morning, Juzi from the association said a new partner had arrived. You know the President’s nature; when he saw a beauty, he eagerly organized a seaside gathering and even paid out of his own pocket. Knowing he was just trying to pick up girls, I naturally pretended not to know and didn’t ruin his good deed…”

“Let me interrupt, what time did Juzi contact you?”

“Early in the morning. I didn’t ask for the exact time, but it was no later than seven.” Copper Coin asked sensitively in return: “Why? Do you have news about Juzi?”

“We’ll talk about Juzi later, you continue.” Little An held off on the topic, but Chen Fengshi also realized something was wrong, because he knew the time Juzi sent a distress message to her mother.

“They went to the seaside, but I didn’t ask about the specifics. The key is, starting from noon, the messages from these people in the group chat became a bit strange, and more than one person was privately messaging people in the association who didn’t attend the gathering to arrange a meet-up.” Copper Coin said, taking out her phone, opening her chat history with the President, and showing it to them.

A little after twelve noon, the President of the Mutual Aid Association sent Copper Coin a message, saying he wanted to meet her and talk about something important.

Little An immediately knew what was strange and said: “He wouldn’t send a message to this number of yours.”

“Right! The association’s contact number is guarded against being implicated. The President would use his other number to contact my private number. So I pretended to deal with the next few sentences, but the person on the other end was very alert and probably noticed my probing, so they never replied after that.” Copper Coin said, putting away her phone, taking a drag of her cigarette, and continuing: “I can’t reach them on the phone. The people who went to the seaside today, including Juzi, are all unreachable. If there’s still no news by tomorrow, I plan to go to Qingfeng’s house.”

Little An knew Qingfeng also carried other tracking devices with him, but only the device at his house could be used to check. And the gathering rules of the Mutual Aid Association had always been that you only knew the specific place if you participated. Everyone had a mutual understanding: those who didn’t go wouldn’t ask. Now that they were out of contact, they still had to be found.

“What about the phone signals?”

“I asked someone to check; they are scattered in different parts of the city. That’s why I delayed taking further action, until six in the evening when I felt the situation was very wrong.” When Copper Coin said this, she paused, and Little An chimed in: “Today is Wednesday. He was originally hand-picked to come to your door and serve you, right?”

Copper Coin was very unhappy, but she held back at this time and didn’t argue. She needed a man to accompany her every Wednesday, not necessarily on other days, but Little An had known this habit for a long time. “Even if he was picking up girls, he wouldn’t have the guts to stand me up, and it’s even more impossible for him to not even give an explanation!”

“I believe it.” Little An affirmed this. For Copper Coin, the President of the Mutual Aid Association was just one of her many playthings who could bring her pleasure, but for the President of the Mutual Aid Association, Copper Coin was the key to changing his life, his benefactor, and his financial backer.

“They have likely met with trouble. The Fungal Demon has targeted the Mutual Aid Association!” When Copper Coin said this, her voice was a bit shaky, and her hands were trembling. Even though she tried her best to control it and didn’t want to lose face in front of Little An, she was indeed very scared. Life was so beautiful, and there was endless enjoyment waiting for her; she didn’t want to die!

Copper Coin’s fear exposed the real reason for her delayed action. She wasn’t hesitating because she was unsure of the situation, but because she was afraid—afraid that doing too much might accidentally expose herself. The reason she was willing to meet Little An was also out of fear. She wanted to avoid danger but didn’t know her real situation, yet she knew she had to do something, at least to figure out what was going on.

If Little An’s Demon Extermination Association was willing to take this on, it would be a perfect outcome. She had originally been considering whether to contact Little An proactively, but she just felt she might not be able to persuade Little An, which was why she had delayed taking action.

“I need the Mutual Aid Association’s resources, most importantly the Map Program made by Qingfeng.” Little An made her request directly. Copper Coin agreed without even thinking, directly handing her own phone to Little An, then remembering, she took it back, canceled the various passwords, and handed it to Little An again. “Qingfeng’s program needs permission settings. You guys use mine first. I have the spare key to his house, and the key to the association’s headquarters too. You can take them all. Notify me as soon as you have news! I have something to do tomorrow and am going to Haishi. Call my second sub-number to contact me.”

“Okay.” Little An didn’t say more, nor did she expose the fact that Copper Coin’s so-called going out for business was actually an attempt to escape danger. Staying in Xuancheng, she couldn’t feel safe enough, always carrying a fear of lurking crises, afraid that something would suddenly rush out and attack her.

“Then it’s settled…” Copper Coin threw away her cigarette. When she pulled open the car door to get in, she hesitated briefly, then called out to Little An, saying: “Thank you. I think… it’s necessary to revise my view. Although the Demon Extermination Association is an unstable danger factor, in the future, it will be necessary for our two sides to cooperate deeply, especially in resource sharing.”

Copper Coin’s proactive goodwill was exactly what Little An needed, and what the Demon Extermination Association needed. For Awakeners of the Power of Life alike, this was of course a good thing.

Little An thus also stated her position: “This is a good thing for everyone. Actually, after leaving the Mutual Aid Association, I also reflected on myself. Blindly ignoring the actual situation of the Mutual Aid Association and strongly demanding that everyone actively switch to proactive combat—on this point, my demands were excessive. The Mutual Aid Association has its own actual situation. Being able to help out to a certain extent and at necessary times is the best way that everyone can accept. Even if it’s just resource sharing, it’s also a very important help.”

“If you had been willing to think this way earlier, our two sides wouldn’t have cut off contact for so long. I said it back then: although I wanted you to leave the Mutual Aid Association, the most fundamental reason was that you didn’t consider our actual situation. Our strength is far inferior to yours; we don’t have the confidence to fight proactively. We just wanted to live and couldn’t bear such a heavy responsibility…” Copper Coin said this, then felt that saying too much might ruin the rare harmony, so she forced herself to stop, thanked her again, got in the car, and drove away.

When Chen Fengshi got on his motorcycle, he glanced at Little An and said: “You actually don’t think you were wrong at all.”

“I was not wrong; what’s wrong is their cowardice!”

“Then why did you give her a way out?” Chen Fengshi found this quite interesting; it turned out Little An would also compromise herself at the right time.

“For the responsibility of the President.” Little An put on her helmet, and her mood was not good when she said this. “That is the responsibility to give everyone a greater chance to survive and defeat the Fungal Demon.”

“Suddenly acting so leadership-like feels a bit unreal.” Chen Fengshi told the truth. If she could really take this as her duty, she wouldn’t have argued with him so early on. At least this matter showed that Little An’s sense of leadership responsibility was still limited for now.

However, if she really became a perfect leader, Chen Fengshi felt it would be boring.

Little An handed Copper Coin’s phone to him and told him how to view the map, which was actually very easy.

Chen Fengshi had to admire it. Although the Mutual Aid Association was wholeheartedly avoiding the Fungal Demon, this Map Program was really well made. The red dots inside clearly showed the distribution range of the Fungal Demon, including the edge areas. Wherever a parasitic host of the Fungal Demon was found, it could be located in real-time and uploaded to the Map Program, accompanied by voice or text explanations.

With this, combined with the information provided by Queen Huang, taking the initiative to attack would no longer be just a dream!

Little An started her motorcycle and said before setting off: “I’ll give the keys to Little Huo and Alcohol, and then go to back you up.”

Chen Fengshi gestured to show he understood, and then said: “Hopefully it won’t be needed.”

Two people, two motorcycles, headed in different directions at the intersection.