Chapter 414: Chapter 414
Melody Summers couldn’t help but smile at that. ’That’s actually a pretty good idea,’ she thought. ’If we don’t talk at all, there’s no chance of being tricked or brainwashed.’
Melody looked at Noelle Quillan and continued, "I was just looking around the apartment. I found that Gene Young and his wife stockpiled a lot of supplies in the spare bedroom—coal, rice, flour, and even a lot of white sugar. There’s frozen meat on the balcony, too. It’s more than enough for the three of you to live here for several months. Just stay here and wait for the police."
"After I leave, remember to double-lock the front door. Check all the doors and windows, and don’t let any strangers in. I don’t know if that couple has any other accomplices in this building, so you need to be vigilant and careful about everything. If anything happens, you can find me upstairs in 1606."
Noelle Quillan nodded. "Okay, I’ll remember everything!"
Melody then gave Noelle a few more reminders before leaving apartment 1501.
******
The next morning, Melody Summers tried to contact Officer Sean Pierce and Officer Tristan Tanner. She wanted to tell them about Gene Young and his wife, as well as the Advent Sect.
But neither of her two calls went through.
’Looks like both officers’ phones are dead, too...’ Melody thought.
Melody felt a bit helpless. After thinking it over, she reluctantly contacted Roman Rhodes.
Roman was currently investigating The Arcadia Shop, so Melody really didn’t want to contact him unless it was absolutely necessary.
Roman and the Rhodes Family were staying at The Nimbus Hotel, which had its own power system, so the call connected quickly.
Once the call connected, Melody omitted her deal with Joanne White and selectively told Roman about her experience the previous night.
Roman was also shocked to learn about it. He told Melody he would arrange for people to start an investigation focusing on Margaret Adler and the couple, Gene Young and his wife, as soon as possible.
After hanging up, Melody stretched and went into the Arcadian Space, ready to start today’s long-distance fishing expedition!
After two days of practice, Melody had become increasingly skilled at operating the Long-distance Fishing Boat, and she was catching more and more seafood. Today’s haul was another great success, with various kinds of fresh seafood piled into small mountains on the deck.
Today, Melody had sailed to a stormy deep-sea area and caught several thousand pounds of seafood and over a hundred king crabs.
Yesterday, Melody had supplied The Grand Karn Hotel in Kanton and The Solara Hotel in Lyndell. Both hotels were extremely satisfied with the quality of the seafood and expressed their desire for a long-term partnership.
In addition to these two, several other hotels got wind of it and contacted Melody to place orders.
After some negotiation, Melody arranged to supply six hotels today. If all went according to plan, she was on track to earn a small fortune today!
With the orders settled, Melody happily rolled up her sleeves, full of energy, and began sorting, rinsing, and packing the seafood for delivery!
Melody and Albus worked together in perfect sync. The orders for the other five hotels went out smoothly, but when it came to the delivery for The Nimbus Hotel, something unexpected happened.
Albus let out a "meow" and said to Melody:
[Host, The Nimbus Hotel really did intercept our drone!]
It was clear someone at The Nimbus Hotel had set an ambush. The moment Albus maneuvered the drone and seafood to appear at the hotel, the drone was captured by the people lying in wait.
Melody sighed at the news. "Just as I expected... They finally made a move on our drone."
Even so, Melody wasn’t the least bit panicked.
Thanks to Sophie Thorne’s warning, Melody had already anticipated this scenario. She had swapped out the prop ahead of time, replacing the store-bought drone she normally used for deliveries with a model made of wood.
Melody had built the model herself using materials she found on hand. No matter how much Roman and Ronan Rhodes combed through big data from sales platforms, they would never find any information about this wooden model.
’There’s no way I’m letting my cover get blown.’
As for everything else, Melody was tired of putting on an act. ’Fine, let the world think The Arcadia Store is run by aliens!’
She had a devil-may-care thought. ’There are already so many illogical things about The Arcadia Shop, let the outside world guess whatever they want! As long as my identity isn’t exposed, what can they do, even if the government discovers how strange the shop is?’
’We’re about to enter the third year of the cataclysm, with torrential rains and floods on the way. The government will be too busy with disaster relief everywhere to have much energy left to investigate The Arcadia Shop.’
Realizing this, Melody no longer had anything to fear!
After she finished sending out the seafood, the mountains of produce on the deck had vanished, leaving only a few large, beautiful conch shells.
If Melody wasn’t mistaken, these shells should be full of Blue Scale Prawns!
Melody took out a bucket and emptied the Blue Scale Prawns from the shells into it. This time, she had harvested over forty lively, wriggling Blue Scale Prawns!
Melody was both surprised and delighted. Her previous grumbling about the drone instantly vanished.
She joyfully carried the bucket out of the space, ready to share the delicious and nutritious prawns with her whole family!
******
「Meanwhile, at The Nimbus Hotel.」
Ronan Rhodes stared at the drone the bodyguard brought over, his face a mask of astonishment. "It’s made of wood?!"
’How is that possible?!’
The bodyguard nodded. "Yes, sir. We were just as surprised when we first got it. We thought we’d made a mistake, so we replayed the surveillance footage. But we couldn’t find anything wrong in the footage. The only thing used for transport was indeed this wooden drone."
Ronan was so shocked his eyes widened. He couldn’t help but blurt out to the bodyguard, "How is that possible! How can something made of wood fly?!"
The bodyguard didn’t dare to speak. In truth, he was no less shocked than Ronan. He had re-watched the surveillance footage several times to confirm it, and now he felt like his entire worldview was collapsing.
Compared to Ronan’s shock, Roman Rhodes, who was looking at a computer nearby, was much calmer.
Roman pondered for a moment, then pointed at the wooden drone and said to the bodyguard, "Have someone take it to be tested for fingerprint data. See how many prints you can lift, then run them through the database."
Roman could tell the drone’s workmanship was extremely crude; it could even be described as shoddily made. This was definitely not something sold on the market—after all, if a product was made this poorly, no one would buy it.
If they could lift fingerprints from it, they could essentially identify the shop’s operator.
After the bodyguard left, Ronan still hadn’t recovered from his shock.
He said to Roman, "Uncle, if the drone is made of wood, how did they transport thousands of pounds of seafood? Don’t tell me... they have some kind of teleportation ability?"
Roman gave a noncommittal response, his focus fixed on the computer screen in front of him. He replied somewhat dismissively, "Maybe it’s just as you think. This shop is actually run by aliens. They have the ability to teleport, moving the seafood here instantly, and the drone is just a decoy."
Hearing such words from the ever-materialistic Roman, Ronan felt as if his world was about to end!
Shock and disbelief were written all over his face. He couldn’t help but grab Roman’s sleeve and say, "Uncle, what are you talking about?! You’re a materialist!"
