Demons Beside You

Chapter 605: Refusal

Fannity!

Chen Zhao didn’t expect to meet her again.

Fannity was also surprised to see him here.

“Hi, Chen.” Fannity led her team over to greet Chen Zhao.

“What a big bear.”

“Is that a giant lizard?”

“What breed is that?”

Chen Zhao saw that everyone on Fannity’s team was unfamiliar.

It seemed that she’d built her own team.

“Don’t tell me that you’re here to hunt.”

“And don’t tell me that you’re here for an exploration.”

“Ha… You guessed it.”

Chen Zhao really wanted to turn around and leave now. There was never anything good when it was related to explorations.

Any random monster could kill half of their team.

“It’s just a regular relic this time.” Fannity clearly knew that Chen Zhao was worried he would be involved in some monster fighting again.

Chen Zhao glanced at Fannity’s team. They were much more normal this time. At least, there were only a few who were fully armed.

Chen Zhao introduced Fannity to the people on his side.

Laurent, Fali, and Faur were all curious about Fannity’s career.

They really were from one family. They had identical interests in this aspect.

“Are you interested in exploring? This time, we’re going to a branch of the Incan civilization. It’s not that far from here, just about 20 kilometers.”

Twenty kilometers wasn’t far, but this was in the mountains.

Traveling 20 kilometers in the mountains could make an adult die of exhaustion.

Of course, it was mostly because Chen Zhao honestly hated explorations.

“Chen Zhao had gone to a relic with our team before.”

Chen Zhao pulled Kane to the side. “Kane, tell Laurent later that they’re not good people. Don’t get too close to Fannity.”

Explorations and stuff were the worst.

Kane looked at Chen Zhao suspiciously.

With what he knew of Chen Zhao, the man would make anyone or anything that he didn’t like into something evil.

“They’re really not good people? They don’t look bad though. Some of them look like college professors.”

“The last time I went to explore a relic with them, half of them died. If we don’t stop Laurent and the others and something happens this time, you might be part of the half that dies.”

This made sense now.

When Chen Zhao walked over, Fali and the others were in a heated discussion with Fannity.

“Chen, Fannity invited us to join the expedition.” Fali’s eyes were filled with anticipation. She hoped that Chen Zhao would agree.

“Fali, Fannity clearly didn’t tell you that in the last two expeditions, 15 people in her team died the first time and 20 died the next.” Chen Zhao wouldn’t allow Fali to take that risk.

He wouldn’t allow it no matter how great Fannity made it sound.

“If it weren’t for me, all of them would’ve died.”

“Huh?” Fali didn’t think that relic explorations would be so dangerous.

“Chen, I said that this is a regular exploration. The relic has already been searched before and many teams have visited it. It’s not dangerous.”

Chen Zhao glanced at her. “If it’s not dangerous, then why does a portion of your team have a gun? You’re not hunting, are you?”

“It’s just in case. It’s like an officer patrolling the streets. Even a regular patrol officer would have a gun.”

“Anyway, I don’t care if you go on an expedition. Just don’t drag my family into it.”

Fali saw how serious Chen Zhao was. He didn’t have his usual playfulness, so she didn’t say anything else.

If Chen Zhao didn’t think it was dangerous, he wouldn’t stop them from exploring with this attitude.

Seeing how insistent Chen Zhao was, Fannity was a bit disappointed.

Just as Chen Zhao was worried about, this expedition wasn’t completely without risks.

If Chen Zhao could join, then their safety would skyrocket.

Unfortunately, Chen Zhao was too insistent. She couldn’t find any excuses.

After the short interaction, Fannity left with her team.

“Chen, is relic exploration really that dangerous?”

“Didn’t you see that they all have automatic assault rifles and grenades? That’s standard military equipment. The seven of us only have hunting rifles. If something happens, do you think they’ll protect themselves first or us?”

It made sense to Fali. After all, there were so many of them. If there really was danger, Chen Zhao couldn’t protect them all.

Whether it was Faur, Laurent, Karim, Howard, or Kane, she didn’t want any of them to get hurt.

No one’s moods were affected by this encounter. They collected their belongings, put out the fire, and continued up the mountain to hunt.

“Hey, enough. This is the mountains, not your home,” Faur complained in the distance.

As a single lady, she hated PDA the most.

This annoying couple showed their affection no matter when or where.

This wasn’t Fali and Faur’s first time hunting in the mountains. Chen Zhao guessed that they’d gone hunting very often in Sacramento.

Their technique was very well-experienced.

Of the entire team, only Chen Zhao was empty-handed.

“Chen, are you okay?” Laurent mocked.

“I’m carrying such a big bag. I can’t aim well.”

“Karim, Howard, and Kane are carrying bags that aren’t any lighter than you, but look at their prey?”

Right then, everyone stopped.

They saw piles of animal corpses. They’d all been skinned.

“Did Fannity’s team do this?”

“No, not them.” Karim shook his head. “A poaching team did it. It doesn’t look small-scale either.”

Kane and Howard wiped their grins off their faces too. “Chen, we should go back. If we run into them, it’ll be trouble.”

“That’s weird. There are no valuable animals here. Why would such a big poaching team come?”

This was a warm forest but not a rainforest, so all the animals were pretty common.

The medium and large animals included bears, wild boars, pumas, deer, and wolves. Looking at their black market price, it wasn’t worth it for a large poaching group.

Their targets were mostly the Amazon rainforest, African safari, or Southeast Asia.