Chapter Twenty-Two: Gathering Intelligence

Among the two women, one was a brown-haired Westerner and the other had black hair and hailed from the East, though her exact nationality was indeterminate. Their clothing could scarcely be called garments—more like strips of cloth—and judging by the badges on their arms, they too were Dreamers.

As Wang Ling entered the tavern, the brown-haired woman was untying the straps of her underwear, and the men of various skin tones were pounding the tables and hooting. With a flirtatious smile, she hooked her fingers around the panties, letting them slip down bit by bit, tantalizing the crowd. Finally, she yanked them off in one sudden motion, laughing with a silver-bell-like voice, and tossed the underwear onto the head of a burly, bear-like man.

The other men, eyes blazing, shouted so loudly it seemed they might lift the roof off the tavern:

“Julie, I’m much handsomer than Stone Johnson, why didn’t you throw them to me?”

“With your skinny frame? You’re nowhere near as muscular as Johnson! Women love strong men, but I’m even stronger than Johnson! Julie, your panties should be mine!”

“Wahaha, Johnson, do those panties smell good?”

“Since Julie chose Johnson, let him treat us! If he doesn’t buy us a round, wait till we meet him in the mission world—then I’ll squeeze his eggs right out!”

The man called Stone Johnson wasn’t angered by these jeers; he took the underwear from his head, brought it to his nose, inhaled deeply, and wore an expression of utter bliss. Amid the mocking and disdai