Traveling through time, I'm making pancakes in Warhammer

"You said you came to the Middle Nest because someone in the Upper Nest was watching you. How did you know someone was watching you?" Arabelle noticed the key part of Howard's story and asked this question.

"My pancake sales were going well, but one day a tax officer came and searched my house. He then gave me a long fine, the amount of which was exactly my total income for the past three months," Howard replied.

"That's not uncommon," Arabelle thought for a moment before saying, "Maybe they checked your account before fining you. I've heard that some officials in Shangchao use this tactic to exploit civilians without connections. They threaten civilians by revealing their full balance, telling them they have the power to freeze their accounts. To prevent their income from being taken away, civilians resort to bribing officials with large sums of money, hoping they'll leave them some."

Howard: "But I didn't open a bank account. All the cash I received was kept at my residence."

Arabelle: "...so stupid, I almost wonder if they did it on purpose."

Howard said, "I don't know if they did this intentionally or unintentionally, but it at least proves that they have a record of every income I made while living in the Upper Nest. The fact that they can record every cash income I make means they've been monitoring me since the first day I landed. Anyone with this ability must be very powerful."

"That's a bit strange. According to what you said, your identity at the time should be similar to that of a refugee. Why would he monitor you, a refugee?" Arabelle seemed a little puzzled.

"I guess it's related to the angels." Howard: "So my initial guess is that the big man must be planning something, and this plan must not be known to the angels. And I seem to have some communication with the angels, so he needs to use some means to confirm the specific relationship between me and the angels."

"Tactically, letting them reveal their hand to me was extremely foolish, but strategically, they've already achieved their goal." Arabelle fell into deep thought after hearing Howard's analysis. Howard continued, "If they find out that I'm still connected to the angels, then they can push the tax collector to take the blame. If they find out that I can no longer contact the angels, then they can move forward with their plan with peace of mind. It seems they've already achieved their goal."

"But there's a problem here," Arabelle's eyebrows knitted together slightly. "You were just an ordinary citizen of the hive at the time. Why would those top officials be afraid of you knowing their plans?"

"I've been thinking about this since leaving the Upper Hive. I've come up with many possible explanations, and the most likely one is..." Howard pushed up the bridge of his nose, pretending to be wearing a pair of glasses. "This plan will have a significant impact on the Hive, so much so that even a civilian like me can notice it, and it's likely to be a negative impact."

After hearing Howard's analysis, Arabelle's expression changed slightly. "Your analysis is filled with malicious speculation and persecution... but this is Kalimdor, so I think your analysis is not unreasonable."

Then Arabelle leaned against the wall, holding her chin with one hand, looking as if she was thinking seriously. Finally, as if she had made up her mind, she punched the wall hard, then looked at Howard and said, "I'll take you to see someone."

Howard nodded, not quite understanding, and followed Arabelle back to the machine workshop.

But after returning to the workshop, Arabelle did not continue to do the unfinished work. She took Howard to a room at the back of the workshop where materials and discarded parts were piled up. Arabelle kicked away the randomly piled gears and foam. These debris covered a metal floor that was slightly different in color from the surrounding area.

Arabelle took out an electric wrench and unscrewed the screws at the four corners of the floor, pulling away the metal floor.

Under the floor was a cubic space about two meters long and one meter deep. In one corner of the space was a smaller sealed wooden box with a crowbar on top.

Arabelle pried open the wooden box, which was filled with golden dry straw, and buried in the straw were many weapons and ammunition.

Arabelle first took out a folding knife from the straw, then turned on the power. The blade of the folding knife vibrated at a frequency invisible to the naked eye, and made a slight and sharp sound when rubbing against the air.

Arabelle whistled, put away her folding knife and inserted it into the leather straps on the outside of her boots. In addition to the folding knife, she also inserted many sharp weapons such as bayonets, daggers and scimitars into the straps of her boots.

Then she took out a revolver of astonishingly large caliber from the box, loaded the bullets into the cylinder one by one, and then turned the cylinder. The cylinder turned without any sense of lag.

Arabelle swung the pistol, and the cylinder snapped back into place. Then, with satisfaction, Arabelle slipped the revolver into his right belt and stuffed a leather case full of revolver bullets into his trouser pocket.

After finishing her equipment, Arabelle looked at herself. Because she had a pistol in her belt, the right half of her clothes was bulging, which looked awkward no matter how she looked at it.

Arabelle pondered for two seconds before walking out of the small room where weapons and ammunition were stored. As she passed Howard, she patted his shoulder and said, "I'm going to go change. You need to disguise this place a little so no one can see through it at a glance."

Then Arabelle left, and Howard was alone in the room for a long time, and then he tried to complete the task that Arabelle gave him.

First, he had to put the iron floor back in place, so Howard went to move the iron plate. However, he felt something was wrong as soon as he started - Arabelle had just lifted the iron plate with one hand, as casually as brushing away a fallen leaf, but he felt that the iron plate was extremely heavy.

Finally, he painstakingly pulled back the sheet of metal flooring that Arabelle had lifted with one hand, and then covered it with the debris he had moved. By the end of this, Howard was sweating profusely. Turning around, he saw Arabelle had already changed her clothes and was leaning against the doorframe, watching the show.

Arabelle said she was going to change her clothes, but in fact she just put on a camel-colored high-necked trench coat on top of her original one. She leaned against the door frame, with light pouring in from outside. Just looking at her silhouette, she really looked like a ranger in an old movie from the 3K era of humans.

"Are you going to..." Howard hesitated and asked, "Go to war?"

"No, I'm going to see an old friend," Arabelle replied.

But no matter how you look at it, you look like you're going to shoot that old friend.

Arabelle lowered her voice to make it sound more raspy and weathered—though her voice was already hoarse, probably from smoking—and then she spoke:

"You have to remember that in Kalimdor, when you attend any important occasion, you'd better carry a gun, no matter if the other party is friend or foe."

Howard slapped his head and thought, "Oh no, this girl is stupid."