Reincarnated as an Energy with a System

Chapter 1855: Dinner

Ning let out an exaggerated tired sigh. ”Sounds like a lot of work.”

”It is,” Larissa said, sounding tired. ”Still, someone’s gotta do it.”

”That someone being me,” Mira complained from the side.

Ning laughed. ”And any words on Talia?”

Larissa froze. Mira stiffened up at the name and slowly turned toward Larissa, checking on her.

Larissa still hadn’t fully gotten over the shock of what had happened. She was doing well, but she wasn’t fully recovered.

”We’ve searched around, but so far we’ve gotten nothing,” Mira said. ”Whoever she was, she definitely wasn’t from around here, and she does not exist in our database.”

”Did we at least figure out what she came to the city in?” Ning asked. ”A bus maybe? A train?”

”Still searching,” Mira said.

Larissa nodded. ”Jack is asking around in his free time, but since we’ve got other work to do and... there’s not really much time to spend on finding someone we barely know anything about. There are a hundred different ways she could’ve entered the city, a thousand different places she could’ve come from. It’s just impossible to check all of those places, especially when the chief won’t allow us to spare any other manpower for this. Even Mira and Jack are technically not allowed to work on it anymore, but the chief turns a blind eye to those two.”

”I see. Well, I’ll see if I can help you all in any way. Maybe we could visit Keira and see if she knows more?” Ning asked. ”Anything would help, wouldn’t it?”

Larissa hesitated. ”I try not to rely on her too frequently. Can’t call myself a detective if all I do is go to the fortune teller all the time,” she said. ”Don’t worry. I’ll figure out something soon.”

Ning gave a soft smile. ”Alright. I won’t be here tomorrow. I’m taking the test to finally become a hero. I’ll see you all the day after that. I’ll bring more than just donuts if I pass.”

”Can I request some sushi in advance?” Mira asked.

”You got it!”

Ning left the station and returned to his hotel room.

Blake started rattling off all the precautions Ning needed to take before tomorrow’s test and all the things that could go wrong. Ning let him speak for a while, but at some point he just wanted some quiet.

”Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow. Goodbye.”

He pushed the man out the door and shut it. He returned to the couch, slumping on it as he relaxed. A small smile formed on his face. He had gotten his flying license, and tomorrow, he would receive his hero license.

Then, he could start going around helping people.

As evening rolled around, Ning ordered some dinner and waited. He walked by the bookshelf again and picked out another book to read while he could. The previous story about the mermaid and the fisherman had ended on a bittersweet note, where the mermaid had to give up her gift to walk on land to free the fishermen from drought.

That led to happiness for both groups, stopping an all-out war. The two mains never got together—could never get together—but they were both still happy knowing that the other would live a happy life.

Ning wasn’t sure if he liked the ending or not, but he definitely appreciated it. He had wanted to give another such book a try, but something simply kept him from reading any other book. As though he knew instinctively that none of the others could elicit the same emotions in him as the first book had.

He decided doing nothing was more fun than anything anyway. The dinner arrived—an array of food made by some of the greatest chefs around the city.

Ning excitedly dug into the food, playing the TV in the background as white noise. He ate silently, letting his mind wander for a while. The pasta was delicious with a creamy sauce, the roasted chicken ever so delectable. The bread was soft and fluffy, and the wine...

Ning paused for a moment, drinking the wine again. He let the wine swirl inside his mouth for a while before swallowing it. He took another sip and nodded.

The wine... was poisoned.

”I see. So I won’t be relaxing then.”

He still finished the food first and then called for room service. He showed the wine to the young woman, telling her what it was. The young woman was rightfully doubtful at first, but she still called her manager nonetheless, and soon a few people were at the door.

”My wine was poisoned,” Ning said. ”And one of your hotel staff likely did it.”

The manager began to speak, but Ning cut him off.

”I have no intention of publicizing this information, so if you’re worried about your hotel’s reputation, don’t be,” Ning said. ”But I will need to see the footage of who handled the wine, from bottle to my room.”

Ning fished around in his pocket for a moment before bringing out a card. ”If you wish to refuse, these will be the people who will hear about this next.”

The manager took the card with a confused look and panicked when he noticed that the card belonged to a hero agency.

”You... you work for a hero agency?” the man asked.

”I’m a soon-to-debut hero,” Ning said. ”And coincidentally, or maybe not, tomorrow is my test. And someone tried to poison me today, so if you don’t mind, I would like to get to it right away.”

The manager immediately made some calls and brought Ning down to the control center of the hotel. Various screens littered the walls inside the dark room; footage from every public location of the hotel—both those accessible to customers and staff—was freely visible from here.

Ning looked around until he found the outside of his room. ”There,” he pointed. ”Go back to twenty minutes ago, when the food was delivered to my room. We can go back from there.”