The red moon was cut in half and separated in the air, disappearing when it was about to fall.
Middendorffi ignored the disappearing red moon because the man with the sword had already landed before him. Coming down from such a high place, this person's falling movement was extraordinarily light and silent when stepping on the ground. With all the previous things, it was obvious that the person who came must not be an ordinary human.
He had a long figure, long black hair, and a long robe. Even in the dimly lit night, one could see his stern brows and indifferent expression. He carried an invisible pressure, ten or a hundred times more than the red moon before, making people tremble at his sight, not daring to look at him squarely and thus ignoring his martial appearance.
Middendorffi, however, had been staring at him with unblinking eyes.
From the moment he was in mid-air until he reached him, Middendorffi didn't take his eyes off him. Even if the man still held a sharp sword in his hand, even if he had just been able to slice through the lurid red moon with a single stroke, Middendorffi didn't show the slightest expression of fear.
The man also looked at Middendorffi and opened his mouth. His voice was clear and cold, but the content was slightly warm: "Is it alright?"
Middendorffi opened her mouth, as if after two seconds, before finding a way to speak, "... It's fine."
The man nodded his head and wanted to continue to say something but just said, "you." Middendorffi's mobile phone rang.
Middendorffi wanted to avoid picking up.
Middendorffi did not want to answer it, but the person on the other end of the phone was very insistent; Middendorffi stood motionless, and the ringtone would not go out. He and the man just stared at each other for a minute before the man finally said, "Answer it."
Middendorffi reached down and pulled out his phone but didn't take his eyes off the other man. He just picked up the video communication from Henry in front of the man.
"Bear, how's it going? I can't get through on the phone now, and I'm scared to death!" Henry was obviously driving but still looked at the youth on the screen, "Where are you now? Is that thing still chasing you? If you can send a locator, send a locator; if you can't, find a place to hide well. I've already asked someone to find a way to locate your mobile phone ..."
"I'm fine." Middendorffi didn't look at the screen much, even though she was holding up her phone, "Red Moon disappeared too."
"Disappeared? Disappeared how?" Henry asked, paused, and then turned, "Never mind, we'll talk about it when we meet. Please don't take it lightly, and it's better to hide and stay out of the open! Are there any other crowds around? Tell them all to hide, and never look at the crowd!"
Middendorffi didn't answer right away but just continued to look at the man and suddenly asked Henry rhetorically, "You said before that as long as there are people who can see or deal with the visions, they have to find a way to bring back the 'Collector,' right?"
"Why are you suddenly saying that? Although that was a joke, it does mean this ..." Henry said, suddenly realizing Middendorffi's semantics on his own, "Someone handled that Red Moon?!"
Middendorffi tapped the rear camera again.
At a glance, Henry recognized the long-haired man's unearthly appearance from his face alone and immediately said, "Bear, keep him; I'll be right there!"
Middendorffi naturally responded, hanging up the video and sending the location along with it.
After doing all this, Middendorffi put down the mobile phone as if only just remembered to ask the man in front of him, "Can you ... wait with me for a while?"
Without answering, the man asked, "Your name is 'Bear'?"
"Some call me that, but my name is 'Middendorffi.'" Middendorffi answered, then asked, "What is your name?"
The man looked at him, "My name is 'Eli·Jones,' Bear."
"Jones" Middendorffi's speech was not fast, and when he pronounced Eli's name, it was as if the tip of his tongue was slowly grinding between his lips and teeth for a moment, savoring the words slowly as he pronounced them. He finished reading before asking the same question, "Will you wait with me for a moment?"
Eli's response was dry this time, "Yes."
***
Five members of The Collectors came to pick up Middendorffi and Eli at the end of the day.
Those are just the ones who came up to the site, and two others were at home to coordinate the back end and keep in touch. There was no way earlier Middendorffi suddenly dropped the line, but also how to call "not in the service area" to Henry scared a lot, directly to the whole "collectors" are up in arms.
When they arrived at the scene, the two took Xiong, Xue, and two people on board and understood the situation; the three teams searched around. However, this circle check, what did not find out, before the demon of the big screen to and fro broadcast is also the original advertisement, no longer appears what red moon. The people must first note down the location and screen, wait for tomorrow, and then let the relevant personnel sweep tonight's events.
At the other end of the car, Henry and the others asked for Eli's name after briefly confirming that neither Middendorffi nor Eli had any injuries on them. Then, instead of rushing to find out where Eli came from, they began communicating what happened at the party.
It was only then that Middendorffi finally told the whole story of the start and end of tonight's encounter with Redmoon and the last time he had a similar experience at the bus stop. He said it flatly, straightforwardly, with a slight rise or fall in tone. However, even with such a boring brief description, the crowd of "collectors" listened to his heart pounding.
"I can't believe you've encountered this before; why didn't you say anything!" Henry felt that this young man did not know the importance of the matter and could not help but take a bit of a lecturing tone, "No wonder you always want to watch the video of the missing child case, is it because you think it is related to the strange video you saw?"
Colleagues in the car and the online conference room have been equally condemning. Middendorffi was not only a new supernumerary but also a "bit of information" and, in the eyes of his colleagues, a young man with "nothing to lose." What he should have done when he realized the anomaly was to report it rather than face it alone, which would have been too dangerous!
Middendorffi replied, "That red moon from last time quickly disappeared."
"Last time is last time, and this time is this time. You are lucky this time, and someone saved you. In case ... you have no time or place to regret!" Henry did not have the good sense to say, "Your brain is still not fully healed after your serious injury last time. Can you think more for yourself? Speaking of which, didn't I tell you to take the metro home long ago? Why are you still around? Did you suddenly have trouble remembering how to retake the metro?"
Before Middendorffi could answer, Eli suddenly asked, "Are you seriously injured?"
Middendorffi twisted her head, met his eyes, and slowly returned, "Not seriously injured, just memory loss."
"Don't tease how dangerous it was, and you were the one who didn't react at all!" Henry spat out a sentence and then added an explanation to Eli, "Bear was in a car accident last month. His body was not injured, but his brain was directly hit with amnesia, and he couldn't even stop a passing car to ask for help. It was nighttime and raining, so he just walked along the national highway with a confused look. If I hadn't happened to be driving by and happened to shine a light on him covered in blood and stopped him right away, he'd have been a bloody man who didn't know where or when he was going!"
Eli looks at Middendorffi again, "Is that right?"
Middendorffi: "... Yes."
Eli doesn't say anything.
He doesn't have much expression, but it makes people feel he carries a biting and unapproachable aura around himself. Middendorffi also often has a little word, but it will make people think he has a clueless, blank, and straightforward feeling; I can only say that each person has their aura.
After talking about Middendorffi's origin, Henry also smoothly led the topic to Eli: "Mr Jones looks ... like he is not an ordinary person; dare I ask where he is from?"
Eli gave a vague answer, but again, it was expected by the crowd. He said, "I am a cultivator outside the world, just entered the world."
Henry thought to himself that it was true. If it weren't for Middendorffi's proof that Eli could leap into mid-air and split the red moon with a single sword, Henry would have just wondered if Eli was an actor who ran out of some ancient Chinese costume drama set. After all, a closer look at Eli's face still carries the camera. Only Eli's aura and stance would never be within the reach of ordinary people.
The colleague asked again, "Cultivator means ... the legendary 'cultivator'?"
"I'm not quite sure what kind of appearance the so-called legendary 'cultivators' have." Eli returned, "It's just that they have practiced some kung fu and can cut down some demons."
Henry asked, "So, that 'Red Moon' is a demon?"
"Not sure." Eli returned with a straight face but vaguely convincing, "I was passing by and sensed that it was going to harm Bear, so I made a sword strike. It split right in two and disappeared without a trace in a single breath. I may not have killed it with my sword."
He just called Middendorffi "Bear," and Middendorffi herself didn't have any reaction, but the other colleagues were all a bit secretly surprised to hear that.
"Mr. Jones, having saved Bear, is Bear's benefactor and a friend of our 'Collector.'" Henry gave a beat, once again followed the words, and introduced himself, "Just now, I only showed Mr. Jones our documents; I haven't introduced them in detail; the full name of the 'Collector' is the 'Special Incident Handling Office,' which directly belongs to the National Security Department. To put it bluntly, our duty is to 'cut down demons and remove devils' like Mr Jones and protect the people. I don't know Mr Jones' goal in his so-called 'entering the world.' If you are usually free, can you assist us in investigating and handling cases together to protect the peace of the party?
"Of course, if Mr Jones wants to avoid entering our system or being subjected to too much control, he can also sign a partnership with us. Bear is assisting us this way now and is also paid accordingly. But Mr Jones is a man of the world, and we do not use worldly things as bait. If we can talk about it, we can arrange a time and place to talk about it in detail, and if Mr Jones has any conditions, he can put them forward.
Henry had always been so persistent in his endeavors, and Middendorffi had been "lured" into them by him. He has always been confident in his own vision, and he felt that since Eli volunteered to save a stranger's life, it should not be deficient in nature and can be "drawn in."
And Eli, in the face of Henry, issued an invitation, a little pondering, raised a question: "When to talk?"
Henry: "... tomorrow?"
Eli: "I don't have to sleep."
Henry: ... But I do!