Lizhou City, Temporary Command Camp.

"Thank you for your support. If the two of you hadn't acted promptly and risked your lives, we really wouldn't know how to handle this situation!" The officials of the Lizhou City Management Committee surrounded Sun Hang and Candle Dragon, taking turns to shake their hands. However, Sun Hang and Candle Dragon looked slightly embarrassed: only they knew that they hadn't really done anything; that fireball disappeared on its own.

But in the eyes of these other people, there was no doubt that the terrifying entity — powerful enough to send shivers down the spine — was vanquished by these two hunters. A male official with burn ointment smeared on his face made Sun Hang and Candle Dragon's cheeks slightly flush with his words: "As expected of the hunters from Chunming City, your strength is truly unfathomable! To think you completed the subjugation so quickly! I'll arrange for all Lizhou City media to feature this as the headline tomorrow... No, just Lizhou City isn't enough; I'll contact Tianfu City too. The entire Shuzhou should know of your heroic deeds!"

"Uh, have the casualty numbers for this incident been tallied up yet?" Sun Hang's question was like a bucket of cold water, thrown over the crowd, bringing sudden silence to the previously noisy command center. Many people's expressions turned grim, and a few silently left the tent.

"Well... they haven't been tallied up yet." said an official who had been cozying up to them moments ago, "The fire caused by extreme temperatures hasn't been completely extinguished; the counting process can't begin yet."

"Many victims didn't leave behind intact remains... by then we might only be able to rely on household registration to determine who's missing..." another official said.

The 'missing' he mentioned was essentially synonymous with death — and not only that, the household registration statistics had a problem: it couldn't account for the transient population in Lizhou City, as well as some unregistered individuals.

For example, there was a merchant from Tianfu City who came to do business in Lizhou City. Due to the suspension of flights from the Eternal Night, this merchant was stranded in Lizhou City and had no choice but to rent a room in a hotel near the airport.

In this sudden incident, the merchant unfortunately perished... But since he wasn't a local resident of Lizhou City, he wasn't part of the count, and his relatives far away in Tianfu City likely wouldn't receive news of his death.

More troubling still, due to the unavailability of civilian communication, this merchant had never contacted his family — to his relatives, he seemed to have vanished into thin air.

This merchant's wife and children could only keep waiting at their home in Tianfu City, waiting for someone who would never return.

"Difficult, difficult..." an official with graying temples frowned and shook his head repeatedly. The accented murmur instantly spread a sense of grief across the faces of everyone around.

"You guys carry on, I have a stomachache, need to go to the bathroom." Sensing something awry, Sun Hang immediately employed the "fecal escape" technique, pushing past the crowd of officials, and slipped out from the command center's tent.

Outside the tent, Sun Hang glanced in the direction of Panlong Airport. Fires in several blocks were still blazing, and the fiery glow brightened the otherwise pitch-black night sky with a shade of bright orange. The acrid smoke carried its scent for dozens of kilometers...

Sun Hang sighed almost imperceptibly and walked into a temporary toilet constructed with portable panels.

Before long, Candle Dragon also entered the toilet.

He knocked on the stall door and asked, "Sun Hang, are you in there?"

"I am." Sun Hang's voice came from inside the stall.

"Regarding this incident, how do you plan to report it?" Candle Dragon asked.

"Truthfully, what else?"

"Based on the evidence at the scene, it was a disappearance rather than an escape. You could completely take credit for vanquishing the entity." Candle Dragon said in a low voice. "There were only the two of us at the scene; I can write in my report that you single-handedly eradicated the malevolent spirit threatening Lizhou City. As for the specific details of the battle, you'll have to make them up."

"Isn't that falsifying?"

"Do you really think all those officials firmly believe we were the ones who eliminated that entity?"

"If not, then what?"

"Certainly, some people think that way... but for many more, who destroyed the entity isn't important. What's important is having a credit that can be reported to the Federation Government, even if that credit doesn't belong to them."

"You mean...?"

"Blending into the dust is also a way of dealing with things," Candle Dragon continued. "You remember the guy with the ointment on his face?"

"Yeah, what about him?"

"The burns on his face weren't from being at the front lines; he scalded himself with hot water. I 'accidentally' happened to pass by his tent and saw it with my own eyes." Candle Dragon sighed. "It's also a helpless situation... The appearance of the fireball is an act of God. No one should be faulted, but given their positions, even if they did nothing wrong, they must bear the responsibilities that correspond with their authority."

"You want to help them?"

"For you, it's no small credit," Candle Dragon said. "What they want is simply for us to accept this credit."

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